What Does 1 Kings 22:36 Mean in the King James?
And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
One ringing cry turns a gathered camp into separate journeys home.
THE MEANING
You can see how a gathered body dissolves: one cry moves through the camp, and each person is sent toward a separate city or country. The shared formation gives way to individual destinations as the sun goes down.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A shared formation does not make a people inseparable; one announcement can send each person back toward a distinct home.
THE ROOT
רִנָּה
rinnah
GROWS FROM
רנן
r-n-n
To ring out, cry aloud, or sing out.
The cry is not merely content carried across the camp; the word carries the force of sound ringing through a crowd. English “proclamation” can hide that audible quality: the verse gives the group’s dispersal a voice.
ALSO GROWS
rānan: To cry aloud or sing out.
רָנַן
The proclamation is a ringing voice that crosses the gathered camp and changes what the group does.
renanim: Shouts or songs.
רְנָנִים
The same root can describe cries and songs, showing how the camp-wide sound carries the force of a public call.
מַחֲנֶה
machaneh
GROWS FROM
חנה
ḥ-n-h
To encamp, pitch a camp.
The word translated “host” is machaneh, a camp: a people defined by where they are gathered for now. The command sends that temporary gathering back toward city and country, making the camp’s impermanence audible in its own name.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānāh: To encamp or pitch a camp.
חָנָה
The gathering is a temporary encampment, not a permanent home.
machaneh: A camp or gathered host.
מַחֲנֶה
The people are named as a gathered body, then addressed one by one as they return to their own places.
THE PATTERN
A gathered company can dissolve into separate destinations when its shared center gives way.
Then he said, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.THE THREAD
Then he said, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.This verse names the structure behind the dispersal: when the people have no master, each returns to his own house. The cry in 1 Kings gives that separation its public sound, one camp resolves into individual homes.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us