What Does 1 Kings 9:12 Mean in the King James?
And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
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
Hebrew lets “pleased” carry the sense of “straight in his eyes”: something can be given without seeming fitting to the one who receives it.
THE MEANING
You can receive what is offered and still find that it does not sit right with you; the giving does not erase your perception. The verse lets the gift and its unwelcome reception remain together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that something is automatically right for you simply because it is given to you.
THE ROOT
יָשְׁרוּ
yashru
GROWS FROM
ישר
yashar
To be straight, level, or right.
English “pleased” can sound like a passing preference, but יָשְׁרוּ (yashru, “were straight or right”) frames the cities as failing to appear fitting in Hiram’s sight. This root links judgment with straightness: being given does not guarantee that something looks right to its recipient.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, or right.
יָשָׁר
This is the root’s direct sense, giving “pleased” the added shade of something appearing fitting or right.
mishor: Level ground or a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
The same root can describe level terrain, making straightness concrete and suggesting fit or levelness rather than mere liking.
yosher: Uprightness or fairness.
יוֹשֶׁר
This branch carries straightness into judgments of what is upright, showing how the root can describe an appraisal as well as a shape.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
“given” in this verse is natan. The root holds giving and placing together: what Solomon gives is placed into Hiram’s possession. Yet the sentence leaves the recipient’s judgment open, showing that an act of giving does not decide whether what is received feels fitting.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun names what giving produces, while the verse shows that a gift can still be unwelcome to its recipient.
netinim: Those who are given or assigned, especially temple servants.
נְתִינִים
This branch preserves the sense of being placed into a role, echoing the root’s reach from giving something to setting something in someone’s care.
THE PATTERN
What appears fitting is judged through the eyes, while sight alone does not settle what is right.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.THE THREAD
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.The same root, ישר (yashar, “straight” or “right”), sits beneath Hiram’s cities not appearing pleasing in his eyes and the way that seems right in a person’s own eyes. Proverbs makes the mechanism explicit: what looks straight from one viewpoint does not, by sight alone, settle its rightness.
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