What Does 1 Kings 4:6 Mean in the King James?

And Ahishar was over the household: and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the tribute.
1 Kings 4:6 · 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 name “my lord is exalted” stands over tribute, placing royal elevation beside the burden it collects.

This verse puts two sides of royal order in view: the household is managed, and tribute is collected. Adoniram’s name carries “my lord is exalted,” while his office gathers the levy; exaltation and the burden beneath it occupy the same sentence.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a ruler’s elevation is weightless dissolves here: tribute stands beside exaltation, showing the burden attached to that height.

אֲדֹנִירָם

Adoniram

GROWS FROM

רוּם

rum

To rise, be high, or be exalted.

Adoniram means “my lord is exalted”; its final element, ⁨רָם⁩ (ram), comes from ⁨רום⁩ (rum), “to be high.” The name of the man over tribute joins exaltation to the levy in a way the English line leaves implicit.

ALSO GROWS

ram: High, exalted.

רָם

This is the element in Adoniram’s name, so the verse places exaltation directly beside the office of collecting tribute.

marom: Height, high place.

מָרוֹם

It shows the root’s sense of elevation as a place or position, echoing the status carried in Adoniram’s name.

terumah: A contribution or offering lifted up.

תְּרוּמָה

This branch joins the idea of being raised with something contributed, resonating with the verse’s pairing of exaltation and tribute.

Royal elevation stands beside the labor and resources drawn from those under its rule.

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
1 Samuel 8:11 · KJVThe verse makes the cost of royal rule concrete in the people and labor claimed for the king.
And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
1 Kings 5:13 · KJVThe levy named in 1 Kings 4:6 appears here as a number of people drawn into the king’s work.
But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.
Mark 10:42 · KJVThe verse names the pattern of rulers exercising power over the people beneath them.
And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
1 Kings 5:13 · KJV

Both verses use the same Hebrew word, ⁨מַס⁩ (mas), meaning a levy or compulsory taskwork. This verse names the official over that levy; the next shows its scale as thirty thousand men.

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1 Kings 4:6 KJV Meaning