Bible Strands
1 Kings 11:12
Nevertheless, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it during your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Solomon after pronouncing judgment for covenant violation, declaring that the kingdom will be removed but postponing its execution until after Solomon's death.
The words — The Hebrew אַךְ ('akh) literally means "only" or "nevertheless," and לְמַ֖עַן (le.ma.an) translates to "for the sake of," establishing a precise boundary on the coming judgment.
The thread — This structure of delayed or limited judgment for a named intermediary appears in Genesis 19:29, where God remembers Abraham to rescue Lot, and Exodus 20:5, where divine jealousy operates within covenant boundaries.
Why it lands — The text first records the certainty of the kingdom's removal, then notes the postponement and limitation for David's sake, requiring the reader to accept that divine promises do not erase covenant consequences but can narrow their scope.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
Cross-references
- Genesis 12:2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- Genesis 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- 1 Samuel 9:4 So Saul passed through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find the donkeys. He and the servant went through the region of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they went through the land of Benjamin, and still they did not find them.
- 1 Kings 21:29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”
- 2 Kings 20:17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
- 2 Kings 20:19 But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?”
- 2 Kings 22:19 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.