What Does 1 Samuel 3:12 Mean in the King James?
In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
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
What is spoken is raised into the reality it names, and its beginning carries its ending with it.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now with a severe measure: a spoken warning can become the event it names. What is raised against Eli’s house is the whole announced judgment, from its beginning to its completion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a warning is harmless because it has not yet happened dissolves here: its beginning is already moving toward its completed end.
THE ROOT
אָקִים
ʾaqim
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise or stand; in a causative form, make something stand or establish it.
English “perform” can sound like carrying out an assignment; ʾaqim comes from qum, “rise” or “stand,” in a causative form: to make something stand. What has been spoken is not left as sound; it is established against Eli’s house.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise; stand.
קוּם
The root gives the action its force: something is made to stand in view.
heqim: Cause to stand; establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows how “perform” carries the sense of bringing what was spoken into effect.
דִּבַּרְתִּי
dibarti
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; declare.
The verb dibarti means “I spoke”; its related noun davar can mean both “word” and “matter.” Hebrew keeps utterance and matter in one word family, while English makes the spoken warning and its eventual fulfillment sound like separate things.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; thing.
דָּבָר
This related noun holds speech and the matter spoken of close together.
dibber: Speak; declare.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verbal action in the verse: the judgment is spoken before it is established.
וְכַלֵּה
vekhaleh
GROWS FROM
כלה
k-l-h
Come to completion or an end; in a causative form, complete or consume.
“make an end” in this verse is vekhaleh. The word for making an end comes from kalah, which can mean being finished and, in a causative form, bringing something to completion or consuming it. Paired with “begin,” it leaves no loose edge: the judgment runs from its first act to its full completion.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: Come to an end; be finished.
כָּלָה
This branch shows the finality carried by the verse’s “make an end.”
killah: Complete; finish; consume.
כִּלָּה
This causative form keeps the severity of the judgment intact: its end is brought about, not merely announced.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken by God moves toward the outcome it names.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?The verb translated “perform” here comes from qum, “rise” or “stand”; Numbers 23:19 uses the same root for “make it good.” Together the verses show a spoken word standing as action, whether what is announced is promise or judgment.
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