What Does 2 Kings 13:11 Mean?
And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn aside from all the shortcomings of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel miss the mark, but he walked in it.
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 did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein.THE KEY
Hebrew uses the same root for Jeroboam’s “sins” and his making Israel “sin”: the miss he repeats becomes the road he walks.
THE MEANING
This verse names a live pattern in you: repeated misses can become a path you keep walking. The Hebrew repeats one root in both “sins” and “made Israel sin,” holding together the king’s own missing and the missing he reproduces in others. “He walked therein” gives that pattern a present, lived course.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that repetition turns a harmful pattern into a neutral one: this verse names the repeated path as evil and shows it spreading into a people.
THE ROOT
חַטֹּאות
ḥaṭṭōʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
To miss or err; a missing from the mark.
“shortcomings” in this verse is ḥaṭṭōʾt. English separates the king’s “sins” from his having “made Israel sin,” while Hebrew repeats the root חטא (ḥṭʾ, “miss”) in both. The verse shows a miss reproduced across a people, then describes the king walking in that pattern.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or go wrong.
חָטָא
This is the verb beneath the noun “sins,” keeping the sense of missing visible inside the English word.
heḥĕṭîʾ: To cause someone to miss or lead into error.
הֶחֱטִיא
This causative form appears in “who made Israel sin,” showing the king’s missing carried outward.
הָלַךְ
hālak
GROWS FROM
הלך
hlk
To walk or go.
“walked in it” in this verse is hālak. The verse ends with movement: he does not merely possess a pattern; he walks in it. The word can describe bodily walking or a way of life, so the repeated missing becomes a route he inhabits.
ALSO GROWS
hōlēkh: One who walks or goes.
הוֹלֵךְ
This form names the person by the movement, echoing how the verse presents the king through the path he continues.
halikhāh: Walking, a course, or conduct.
הֲלִיכָה
This branch shows how walking can name a lived course, not just a single step.
THE PATTERN
What is repeatedly followed can become a path that shapes both a person and those who come after.
If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, falling short crouches at the door. Its reaching is toward you, and you shall rule over it.Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.Do you not know that to the one you set yourselves beside as servants for hearing and response, his servants you are, the one you hear and respond to; whether of falling short unto death, or of hearing and response unto alignment?THE THREAD
And he shall give Israel over because of the shortcomings of Jeroboam, who missed the mark and who caused Israel to miss the mark.Here the same root חטא (ḥṭʾ, “miss”) appears in “sins,” “did sin,” and “made Israel to sin.” It opens this verse’s compressed sequence into a mechanism: a miss is repeated, then made transmissible.
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