What Does 1 Kings 4:12 Mean in the King James?

Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:
1 Kings 4:12 · 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

Jezreel means “God sows,” so this district’s geography carries the language of seed and growth inside its boundary list.

Responsibility takes shape as a connected landscape: Taanach and Megiddo, all Beth-shean, then a reach from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and beyond Jokneam. The named places make its extent visible, with Jezreel marking the terrain along the way.

יִזְרְעֶאל

Yizreʿel

GROWS FROM

ז־ר־ע

z-r-ʿ

To sow or scatter seed; in the name Jezreel, joined with ⁨אֵל⁩ (ʾEl, “God”), it means “God sows.”

“Jezreel” in this verse is Yizreʿel. The name holds sowing inside the map: ⁨זָרַע⁩ (zāraʿ, “to sow”) names the act, and ⁨זֶרַע⁩ (zeraʿ, “seed; offspring”) names what is sown and what comes from it. The district sits in a geography whose own name carries planting and its growth.

ALSO GROWS

zāraʿ: To sow or plant seed.

זָרַע

This is the action carried in Jezreel’s name.

zeraʿ: Seed or offspring.

זֶרַע

It shows the other side of sowing: what is planted and what grows from it.

מְקוֹם

maqom

GROWS FROM

קוּם

q-w-m

To rise or stand.

The boundary ends at a maqom, a place formed from the root for standing or rising. The reach is located through actual sites where one can stand, not only through an abstract line.

ALSO GROWS

qûm: To rise or stand.

קוּם

This is the action at the root of the word for a place.

maqom: A place or location; literally, a standing place.

מְקוֹם

It names the concrete endpoint beyond Jokneam.

A sphere of responsibility becomes visible through the places and boundaries that define its reach.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Psalm 16:6 · KJVThe lines that mark a person’s portion are pictured as places that give shape to an inheritance.
Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)
Numbers 34:2 · KJVThe inheritance is made concrete by naming the land and its boundaries.
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Acts 17:26 · KJVHuman habitation is described through determined bounds, just as this district is traced through named places.
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
Genesis 26:12 · KJV

Jezreel is ⁨יִזְרְעֶאל⁩ (Yizreʿel, “God sows”), and its sowing element shares the root ⁨ז־ר־ע⁩ (z-r-ʿ) with ⁨וַיִּזְרַע⁩ (wayyizraʿ, “he sowed”) in Genesis. The place-name opens onto an act of sowing: the same seed-language is carried in the landscape here and enacted in the connected verse.

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1 Kings 4:12 KJV Meaning