What Does Romans 11:3 Mean in the King James?
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
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 word translated “left” shares its Greek root with “remnant,” so a cry of isolation already carries the language of what remains.
THE MEANING
The verse names the violence plainly: prophets are killed, altars are torn down, and a life is under threat. The word rendered “left” belongs to the same Greek root family as “remnant,” holding isolation and what remains in the same word-family.
THE ROOT
ὑπελείφθην
hypoleiphthēn
GROWS FROM
λείπω (leipō; λειπ-)
To leave behind, be left, or remain.
The Greek word for “I was left” shares its root with the word for “remnant” in Romans 11:5. The English words sound unrelated, while the Greek lets the cry of isolation echo with the language of what remains.
ALSO GROWS
leimma: Remnant; what remains.
λείμμα
Romans 11:5 uses this word for the remnant, linking being “left” in this verse to what remains in the next.
katelipon: I left, reserved.
κατέλιπον
In Romans 11:4, God says, “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men”; the same root answers the claim of being left alone with what has been kept.
THE PATTERN
A person’s report of being left alone can coexist with a remnant beyond the field of sight.
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.THE THREAD
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.“Left” in this verse and “remnant” here grow from the Greek root λείπω (leipō), “to leave” or “remain.” The shared root connects the cry of being alone with the word for what remains.
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