But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.
Parallel translations
- WEB Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake; but I will tear it out of your son’s hand.
- KJV 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.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
- NASB However, I will not do it in your days, only for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it away from the hand of your son.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
For David's sake, God would delay the judgment until Solomon's son rather than his own reign. It reveals divine mercy tempering deserved judgment.
Overview
Though judgment was certain, the LORD graciously postponed it out of faithfulness to His covenant with David. The kingdom would be torn not from Solomon himself but from his son Rehoboam. This restraint displays God's steadfast love and His commitment to the Davidic promise, showing that even in judgment He remembers mercy and keeps His word to those He has chosen.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Exod 20:5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
- 2 Kgs 22:19–20because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,’ says Yahweh.
- 1 Sam 9:4–5He passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and there they weren’t there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them.
- 2 Kgs 20:17‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh.
- 2 Kgs 20:19Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?”
- 1 Kgs 21:29“See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the evil on his house in his son’s day.”
- Gen 19:29When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
- Gen 12:2I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 11:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.