What Does 1 Samuel 4:18 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.
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
At the ark’s mention, Eli’s bodily heaviness is named with the same Hebrew root that gives Scripture its language of honor and glory.
THE MEANING
The judge of Israel falls backward at the gate; his neck breaks, and he dies. The verse places his age, bodily heaviness, and forty years of judging beside that blunt physical ending. Mortality remains present even in a life marked by long service and public authority.
THE ROOT
כָּבֵד
kāvēd
GROWS FROM
כבד
K-B-D
To be heavy or weighty; in related forms, to treat as weighty or honor.
The English “heavy” can sound like a bodily detail; כבד (K-B-D, to be heavy or weighty) also gives rise to language for honor and glory. The shared root lets bodily weight touch that wider field as Eli falls.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
This noun carries the same root into what has weight or is accorded weight, echoing the verse’s physical description.
kibbēd: To honor, treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This verb appears in the language of honoring God, bringing esteem into the same word-family as Eli’s heaviness.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets weight describe bodily heaviness, inner heaviness, honor, and glory, opening one physical word onto what is treated as weighty.
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;THE THREAD
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.The Hebrew root כבד (K-B-D, to be heavy or weighty) underlies the verb translated “honour” here and the word translated “heavy” for Eli. That shared root lets the verse hold bodily weight beside the language of what is accorded weight.
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