What Does 1 Kings 22:48 Mean in the King James?
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.
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
A destination rich with promise cannot carry a voyage when the vessel itself is broken.
THE MEANING
You can set out toward a valuable end with the route prepared, yet the means of getting there can fail; the intended gold remains beyond reach when the ships break. The verse names the break as the boundary of movement and gives no further cause.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a clear plan and a valuable prize make success inevitable.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁבְּרוּ
nishberu
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
To break, shatter, or fracture.
The verb is a passive form of שבר: the ships are acted upon, and their journey stops at the break itself. The root can name both fracture and the ruin that follows, making the failed movement concrete, the vessels are broken, and the intended passage has no carrier.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breaking, fracture, ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun from the same root can name both the break and the collapse it brings; here the damage to the ships is also the end of the voyage.
shibber: To break into pieces, shatter.
שִׁבֵּר
This active form makes the root’s force vivid: the ships are not merely delayed; they are broken apart.
THE PATTERN
A valuable destination does not guarantee arrival; movement depends on what carries the plan and on conditions beyond its design.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.THE THREAD
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.Isaiah uses the same שבר (sh-b-r), “break,” root for the fragile reed that is not broken. The shared word brings the ships’ fracture into sharper view: the root names a real break, and also the choice to refrain from causing one.
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