What Does 1 Kings 2:43 Mean?
Why then have you not guarded the oath of the LORD, and the command that I charged you with?
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
Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?THE KEY
The Hebrew root for “kept” means to guard, so the oath and commandment are words entrusted to someone’s care.
THE MEANING
Right now, the question draws a line between receiving a word and guarding it. A sworn bond and a commanded charge are both entrusted to a person, and their reality appears in whether they are kept.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that speaking an oath or hearing a command is the same as keeping it; the verse measures the bond by what happens after the words are spoken.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַרְתָּ
shamarta
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
guard, watch, keep
“guarded” in this verse is shamarta. The verb carries the sense of watching over what has been entrusted. Here, both the oath and the command fall under that guarding: keeping them means preserving their claim in one’s conduct.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: keeper, guardian
שׁוֹמֵר
A keeper watches over what is placed in their care, making the verse’s sense of keeping more than simple recall.
mishmeret: charge, watch, guarded duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch can name a charge entrusted to someone, linking the act of keeping with the responsibility being kept.
שְׁבֻעַת
shevuat
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
swear, take an oath
The oath is a sworn bond, not a passing statement; the question treats it as something that remains binding. Set beside the commandment, it places a sworn promise and an entrusted charge within the same demand for keeping.
ALSO GROWS
shevuah: oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This is the noun for the sworn bond named in the verse.
nishba: swore, took an oath
נִשְׁבַּע
This verb shows the act that makes the oath a spoken commitment.
הַמִּצְוָה
hamitzvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
command, charge
The commandment and the phrase “I have charged thee with” echo the same Hebrew root. The wording gathers the order and the act of entrusting it into one command-and-charge relationship.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: commandment
מִצְוָה
This is the entrusted command named in the verse.
tziviti: I commanded, I charged
צִוִּיתִי
This form appears in the verse’s “I have charged thee with,” repeating the commandment’s root in the act of giving the charge.
THE PATTERN
A word entrusted through oath or command remains real through the act of guarding it.
Because Abraham heard and responded to my voice, and guarded my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.You shall guard closely the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.If you love me, guard my instructions.THE THREAD
Because Abraham heard and responded to my voice, and guarded my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.Genesis uses שָׁמַר (shamar, “guard, keep”) for “kept,” and מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret, “charge, guarded duty”) for “charge,” linking the keeper and what is entrusted to them. That makes the oath and commandment here visible as claims whose keeping shows up in conduct.
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