Bible Strands
1 Kings 11:17
But Hadad, still just a young boy, had fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites who were servants of his father.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the immediate aftermath of Joab’s campaign, noting that a young Edomite prince named Hadad escaped the massacre by fleeing to Egypt with his father’s retainers.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יִּבְרַ֣ח (va/yivrach) means "and he fled," while אֲדֹמִיִּ֜ים ('adomiyyim) identifies his companions as "Edomites" who served his father.
The thread — This flight of a child amid national judgment parallels the preservation of infants in Exodus 2:1, the survival of Jonathan’s son in 2 Samuel 4:4, and Jehosheba’s rescue of Joash in 2 Kings 11:2.
Why it lands — The text demonstrates that political exile and foreign patronage function as instruments of preservation, requiring the reader to recognize divine sovereignty operating through human flight rather than miraculous intervention.
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
That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child.
Cross-references
- Exodus 2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
- 2 Samuel 4:4 And Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she was hurrying to escape, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
- 2 Kings 11:2 But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
- Matthew 2:13 When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”