What Does 1 Kings 14:22 Mean?
And Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their shortcomings in which they had missed the mark, above all that their fathers had done.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.THE KEY
The verse holds two layers together: Judah’s “sins” are misses, yet those misses stir the LORD’s jealousy.
THE MEANING
This verse shows you wrongdoing as relational: an act can stir a response in the one it is against, rather than remain an abstract tally. Judah’s committed sins provoke the LORD’s jealousy, and their pattern surpasses what their fathers did.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wrongdoing is only a private mistake with no relational force; the verse describes it as provoking jealousy.
THE ROOT
וַיַּקְנִיאוּ
wayyaqniʾû
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be zealous or jealous; in this verb form, to stir someone to jealousy.
“provoked him to jealousy” in this verse is wayyaqniʾû. The verb casts Judah’s actions as stirring this response; the root’s sense of ardent zeal gives “jealousy” relational heat. It names a response to what the people do, not an emotion floating apart from their actions.
ALSO GROWS
qinʾāh: Ardent zeal or jealousy.
קִנְאָה
This noun shares the root and shows the force carried by the response Judah’s actions stir.
qannāʾ: Jealous or zealous.
קַנָּא
This describing word comes from the same root and keeps the verse’s jealousy connected to zeal.
בַּחַטֹּאתָם
baḥaṭṭāʾtām
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss or stray.
“had missed the mark” in this verse is baḥaṭṭāʾtām. The Hebrew plural grows from a root associated with missing or straying. That sense lives under the familiar word “sins”: the verse portrays these acts as misses that stir the LORD’s jealousy.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or err.
חָטָא
This verb shares the root and gives the plural “sins” its underlying image of missing.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: A sin or offense.
חַטָּאת
This noun shares the root and connects the people’s acts to the root’s sense of missing.
THE PATTERN
Wrongdoing against the LORD is described as a relational provocation that stirs jealousy.
You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a zealous God, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.They set him burning with the gods of strangers; with what makes the body recoil, they provoked him.Or do we stir the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?THE THREAD
They set him burning with the gods of strangers; with what makes the body recoil, they provoked him.This verse uses the same Hebrew root for provoking jealousy, and names strange gods as the provocation. The shared wording brings the relational force of the root in Kings into focus.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us