What Does 2 Chronicles 21:6 Mean?
And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did, for he had the daughter of Ahab as his wife, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
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 he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “way” grows from “treading”: the course that shapes a life is made by the steps and loyalties that keep repeating.
THE MEANING
A person’s course takes shape through the loyalties they join and the patterns they follow. The LORD sees the deeds that grow from that course, even when a familiar bond makes the pattern feel ordinary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A pattern does not become right because it is inherited, accepted, or carried through a close bond; the goodness of the course remains distinct from the closeness of the relationship.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step; the word also names the road or manner one walks.
The Hebrew “way” shares its root with the verb “to tread.” A path is the trace of movement repeated, so following a pattern is already a course of life taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread, step, or set foot.
דָּרַךְ
The root makes a way more than an abstract rule: it is a course made tangible by the steps taken along it.
midrakh: A place marked by treading; a footprint.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch echoes the verse’s image of a life marked by the path it follows.
THE PATTERN
The route a person repeatedly enters becomes a course that carries the walker toward what that way produces.
Do not enter the path of the restless, and do not walk the way of the harmful ones.Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and roomy is the way that leads to perishing, and many are those who go in through it.THE THREAD
Do not enter the path of the restless, and do not walk the way of the harmful ones.The same Hebrew word, דֶּרֶךְ (derek, “way”), names the course here and the way of evil men in Proverbs. The shared word makes the path concrete: a way is entered and walked, and its direction is carried in the course itself.
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