What Does 1 Kings 8:31 Mean in the King James?
If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:
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 neighbor’s wrong is not left as private accusation: the oath carries the contested matter before the altar, where it enters divine judgment.
THE MEANING
When harm between you and another is disputed, the oath brings the claim before the altar and into God’s hearing. The verse holds the neighbor’s injury and the sworn word together, so neither is treated as weightless or unseen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a dispute beyond ordinary proof is beyond God’s notice: the oath itself is brought before the altar.
THE ROOT
יֶחֱטָא
yeḥĕṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
חטא (ḥṭʾ): to miss, fail, or commit an offense.
The verse’s “trespass” is יֶחֱטָא (yeḥĕṭָʾ, to miss or do wrong), from חטא (ḥṭʾ, to miss or commit an offense). The same root names the act, the wrong itself, and the one who does it, keeping the neighbor’s harm connected to what must be brought into truthful judgment.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: A sin or offense; a missing.
חֵטְא
This noun names the wrong as a matter to be acknowledged, linking the neighbor’s injury to the verse’s sworn claim.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin or an offering associated with sin.
חַטָּאת
The same root can name both the missing and an offering associated with addressing it, joining wrongdoing with its reckoning.
ḥōṭēʾ: One who commits an offense; one who misses.
חוֹטֵא
This form names the person through the same root as the offense, keeping the actor and the harm within one field of accountability.
THE PATTERN
When a neighbor’s claim cannot be settled by direct witness, an oath or judgment places it under a shared authority that can resolve what private accusation cannot.
Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.THE THREAD
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.The same חטא (ḥṭʾ, to miss or commit an offense) root underlies “trespass” here and “sinned” in the psalm. The psalm makes explicit the divine sight already implied when the oath is brought before the altar: the wrong is named where it can be judged.
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