What Does 1 Kings 8:41 Mean in the King James?
Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake;
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 divine name, שֵׁם (shem, name as nature), draws the unfamiliar across distance.
THE MEANING
A person beyond your familiar circle is drawn from far away by the nature carried in God’s name. Distance and difference remain real, yet neither cancels movement toward what that name embodies.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this undoes is that nearness to God belongs only to insiders, or that someone far away cannot be drawn near.
THE ROOT
הַנָּכְרִי
hanokri the foreigner
GROWS FROM
נכר
To recognize or mark as distinct or foreign.
The word for the stranger shares its root with words for foreignness and recognition: difference is seen, not erased. Yet the stranger is drawn by the divine name, so recognition does not have to become exclusion.
ALSO GROWS
nekar: What is foreign or belongs elsewhere.
נֵכָר
It makes the stranger’s distance a recognized difference, while the verse still describes approach.
hikkir: To recognize or discern.
הִכִּיר
The root holds both foreign distinction and recognition, showing that being seen as an outsider does not prevent being drawn near.
רְחוֹקָה
rechokah far
GROWS FROM
רח״ק
To be far or distant, and to move away or put distance between.
“far” in this verse is rechokah far. The form describes the country as distant, not the person as unreachable. Paired with “cometh,” distance becomes a measure crossed rather than the last word.
ALSO GROWS
rachoq: Far away or remote.
רָחוֹק
It names the starting distance the stranger crosses.
raḥaq: To be or become far away.
רָחַק
The verb makes distance a condition that can change, not a permanent barrier.
וּבָא
uva and he
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come, enter, or arrive.
“cometh” in this verse is uva and he. The verb can mean both coming and entering, so the movement is more than travel from elsewhere: the stranger arrives at an encounter. The name’s nature is the pull that makes this approach possible.
ALSO GROWS
bo: To come in, arrive, or enter.
בּוֹא
It shows the stranger’s movement as approach, not merely distance traveled.
mavo: An entrance or way in.
מָבוֹא
The related noun gives the movement a threshold: the one who was far away comes to an entry point.
THE PATTERN
The divine name draws people beyond familiar boundaries into approach.
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.THE THREAD
(For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;The next verse names what draws the stranger: hearing the great name and the strong, outstretched hand. The shared word is שֵׁם (shem, name as nature), making the draw something the stranger hears and then seeks.
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