What Does 1 Kings 22:3 Mean in the King James?

And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?

1 Kings 22:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

“Still” is ⁨מַחֲרִישִׁים⁩ (maḥărîšîm, “keeping silent”), so the king’s question exposes a claim of ownership that remains in another ruler’s hand.

THE MEANING

Ramoth is named as Israel’s, yet it remains in the king of Syria’s hand. The question casts that silence as inaction: why call it ours and leave it held by another? The tension speaks wherever a claim outruns possession.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Calling something yours does not put it in your hands while another still holds it.

THE ROOT

מִקַּחַת

miqqaḥat

GROWS FROM

ל־ק־ח

take, receive, seize

“take” in this verse is miqqaḥat. The taking here would remove Ramoth from a rival’s hand; the word makes the claim a question of actual possession. The same root can name both the act of taking and what has been taken.

ALSO GROWS

lāqaḥ: take, receive, seize

לָקַח

This is the root verb beneath “take it not,” naming the action the king says has not happened.

malqōaḥ: prey, spoil; what has been taken

מַלְקוֹחַ

Isaiah 49:24 uses this related word for the object of a taking, joining the action to the contested thing itself.

מַחֲרִישִׁים

maḥărîšîm

GROWS FROM

ח־ר־שׁ

be silent, keep quiet

“still” in this verse is maḥărîšîm. The word is an ongoing “keeping silent,” not a word for rest or peace. A related form carries the same consonants into deafness, bringing silence close to nonresponse.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāraš: be silent, hold one’s peace

חָרַשׁ

This verb names the silence that the king contrasts with taking the city.

ḥērēš: deaf, unable to hear

חֵרֵשׁ

This related form links the root’s silence with not hearing, sharpening the sense of nonresponse rather than calm.

THE PATTERN

When something claimed or owed remains in another’s hand, the text turns belonging into a question of transfer.

And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

1 Samuel 30:8 · KJVRecovery is framed as pursuit and return, not as a claim that alone restores possession.

Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

Nehemiah 5:11 · KJVThe verse names the transfer directly: lands and goods are to be restored to those from whom they are exacted.

Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

Matthew 12:29 · KJVThe goods remain under another’s control until the one who holds power is overcome.

THE THREAD

Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

Isaiah 49:24 · KJV

Here, “be taken” and ⁨מַלְקוֹחַ⁩ (malqōaḥ, “prey”) come from the same root, ⁨ל־ק־ח⁩ (l-q-ḥ; lāqaḥ, “take, receive”). One names the taking; the other names what is taken, opening the question of whether what is held by the strong can be reclaimed.

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