What Does 1 Kings 3:25 Mean in the King James?
And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
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
The order makes its violence unmistakable: a living child cannot be divided into fair halves.
THE MEANING
You hear a command to cut a living child in two and give each claimant a half. The verse exposes the distance between equal portions and preserving a life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that equal shares make a just outcome; two halves of a living child do not preserve the life either claimant wants.
THE ROOT
גִּזְרוּ
gizrū
GROWS FROM
גזר
g-z-r
To cut or divide; in some contexts, to decree or decide.
“Divide” in this verse is gizrū. The command uses a root of cutting, making the proposed division bodily and concrete. The same root can also name a decree: here, the king’s words give the cut the force of a pronounced decision.
ALSO GROWS
gezarim: Pieces; a plural noun from the same root.
גְּזָרִים
The word for pieces in Genesis 15:17 echoes the cut in this command, making division sound like the making of separate portions.
tigzar: Decree or decide, as in Job 22:28.
תִּגְזַר
This branch shows how the root can join cutting with a decision spoken into effect, sharpening the force of the king’s command.
הַחַי
haḥay
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live, be alive.
The child is named as הַחַי (haḥay), “the living one,” in the same breath as the order to divide. The word keeps the child’s life in view instead of letting the child disappear into the arithmetic of halves.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayyim: Life; a noun from the root חיה (ḥ-y-h).
חַיִּים
Its shared root keeps the child’s living state tied to life itself, not to a claim over the child.
ḥayyah: A living creature; formed from the same root חיה (ḥ-y-h).
חַיָּה
This branch names living beings, underscoring that the proposed split acts on someone alive rather than on an abstract possession.
THE PATTERN
A living whole cannot be preserved by dividing it into isolated shares; its life is disclosed through what happens to each part.
Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.THE THREAD
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.Job’s word for “decree,” תִּגְזַר (tigzar), comes from the same root גזר (gazar) as the king’s “divide.” That shared root lets you hear the order as a decision that gives a cut the force of something already pronounced.
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