What Does Hosea 1:5 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
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
Israel’s bow breaks in Jezreel, a name meaning “God sows”, placing the collapse of armed power in a place whose very name carries the image of planting.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of power treated as security: God breaks Israel’s bow, the instrument of force. It sets that rupture in Jezreel, a name carrying “God sows,” placing the breaking beside the language of planting without softening what happens to the bow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what gives me power or protection is beyond the reach of being broken.
THE ROOT
וְשָׁבַרְתִּי
veshavarti
GROWS FROM
שבר
Break, shatter.
“break” in this verse is veshavarti. The verb names a direct breaking: the bow that projects Israel’s force is shattered. The same root appears in words for fracture and breakers, giving the verse a rupture more forceful than a mere weakening.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Fracture, breach, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This branch shows that the root’s breaking can name a breach itself, not only the act that causes it.
mishbar: Breakers or waves.
מִשְׁבָּר
The word evokes waves as breakers, revealing the root’s forceful image of something breaking through.
יִזְרְעֶאל
Yizre'el
GROWS FROM
זרע
Sow, scatter seed.
Jezreel joins the sowing root with El, “God,” and is commonly understood as “God sows.” The bow breaks in a place whose name carries planting, holding the force of the rupture beside the image of seed in the ground.
ALSO GROWS
zaraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
This is the verb within the place-name’s meaning and appears explicitly in Hosea 2:23.
zeraʿ: Seed or offspring.
זֶרַע
This noun grows from the same root, showing how sowing carries the idea of what is planted.
THE PATTERN
No instrument or symbol of human might stands beyond God’s power to break or dismantle.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)THE THREAD
And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.Jezreel carries the root זרע, “to sow”; here that same root becomes the explicit verb, “I will sow.” The later verse opens the name’s planting image directly, while the earlier verse holds that image beside the breaking of Israel’s bow.
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