What Does 1 Samuel 2:2 Mean in the King James?

There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

1 Samuel 2:2 · 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.

THE KEY

The LORD’s holiness is his unshared nature: the one with no equal is also the only ground named here.

THE MEANING

Right now, the reader encounters God as wholly unshared: none stands beside him, and no other rock is like him. His set-apartness and his steadiness as ground belong to the same reality.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that God is one support among several equal foundations: the verse says no rival stands beside him.

THE ROOT

קָדוֹשׁ

qadosh

GROWS FROM

קדש

q-d-sh

Set apart; sacred.

The word family centers on being set apart for the sacred, so “holy” carries distinctness as well as purity. The verse’s repeated denials make that distinctness absolute: no rival shares this place, and “rock” names the unmatched ground.

ALSO GROWS

qodesh: Holiness; what is sacred or set apart.

קֹדֶשׁ

The related noun shows that the LORD’s holiness is not merely a trait but a reality set apart from every rival.

miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.

מִקְדָּשׁ

This branch gives set-apartness a place to dwell, echoing the verse’s image of God as the ground with no equal.

THE PATTERN

The one with no equal is named as the ground that holds.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4 · KJVGod’s unmatched character is expressed through the image of the Rock.

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psalm 18:2 · KJVThe Rock is the reader’s ground and refuge, not one support among equals.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

Matthew 7:24 · KJVThe rock is the ground on which a life can stand through what comes against it.

THE THREAD

For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?

2 Samuel 22:32 · KJV

This verse repeats Hannah’s paired claims: no God beside the LORD and no rock beside our God. Both use ⁨צור⁩ (tsur, “rock”), making the unmatched God and the unmatched ground one image.

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