What Does 1 Kings 16:19 Mean?
For his shortcomings, in which he missed the mark in doing evil in the eyes of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his falling short he did, causing Israel to miss the mark.
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
For his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin.THE KEY
A person’s missing can become a path that teaches an entire people to miss alongside him.
THE MEANING
A miss does not remain private once it becomes a practiced way others can follow. The same Hebrew root moves from his own missing to the act of making Israel miss. The verse shows how one person’s repeated course can shape what a whole community does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a person’s choices affect only that person dissolves here: a practiced pattern can become a community’s path.
THE ROOT
חַטֹּאתָיו
chatta'otav
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, or miss the mark.
“shortcomings” in this verse is chatta'otav. The Hebrew repeats this root for his own missing and for causing Israel to miss; the final form is causative. The root thus traces a movement from one person’s missing to a whole people being led into the same miss.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss; to sin.
חָטָא
Names the person’s own missing in the verse.
lehachati: To cause to miss; to lead into sin.
לְהַחֲטִיא
This causative form describes his making Israel miss too.
chatta't: Missing; sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root can name both the missing and an offering associated with it.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or step; a way is a track made by treading.
The verse calls Jeroboam’s pattern a derekh, a way related to treading. A practiced course becomes a track that others can follow.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread; to step.
דָּרַךְ
Steps make the track that can become a way.
derekh: A way, road, or course.
דֶּרֶךְ
The verse presents Jeroboam’s pattern as a course someone can walk in.
THE PATTERN
A repeated pattern can turn one person’s miss into a route that leads others into the same miss.
Because of the shortcomings of Jeroboam, which he did, and with which he caused Israel to miss the mark, by the provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.But whoever causes one of these little ones who lean their weight into me to stumble, it is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be sunk down into the deep of the sea.So let us no longer judge one another, but judge this instead, that no one sets a stone to strike against, or a trap, in his brother's way.THE THREAD
Because of the shortcomings of Jeroboam, which he did, and with which he caused Israel to miss the mark, by the provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.The same חטא (chata, “to miss”) root links Jeroboam’s own sin with his causing Israel to sin. Its repetition here reveals the same mechanism: a personal miss can spread into a people’s shared path.
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