What Does 2 Kings 14:3 Mean?

And he did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father. He did according to all that Joash his father did.

2 Kings 14:3 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father: he did according to all things as Joash his father did.

THE KEY

A life can be right in the LORD’s sight and still follow a pattern different from David’s.

THE MEANING

This verse holds two measures together in your life: what is right in the LORD’s sight and the pattern you follow. You can be aligned in one respect while still carrying the shape of a nearer model; the two descriptions are not collapsed into one.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that doing what is right means the pattern you inherited must already match the fuller example you honor.

THE ROOT

יָשָׁר

yāšār

GROWS FROM

י־שׁ־ר

Y-Š-R

To be straight, level, or upright; hence, right.

English “right” can sound like a verdict, while yāšār carries the image of what is straight or level. The verse sets that alignment before the LORD’s eyes, then names a separate pattern of imitation: being right does not settle whose example a life follows.

ALSO GROWS

yashar: Straight, upright, right.

יָשָׁר

The conduct called right is pictured as aligned or straight, not merely given a label.

yesharim: The upright.

יְשָׁרִים

The same root describes people as upright, showing that rightness can characterize a way of being, not only a single act.

mesharim: Uprightness, fairness, or levelness.

מֵישָׁרִים

This branch keeps the image of a level course, adding the sense of rightness as an even path.

THE PATTERN

God’s measure of what is right and the human pattern a life repeats can diverge.

But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 · SDVThe verse distinguishes the LORD’s way of seeing from the measure people inherit or apply.

And he did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, but not with a whole heart.

2 Chronicles 25:2 · SDVIt holds right conduct and inward completeness apart in a single sentence.

Become imitators of me, even as I also am of the Anointed One.

1 Corinthians 11:1 · SDVIt shows human imitation as a pattern that can be measured against a further example.

THE THREAD

And he did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, but not with a whole heart.

2 Chronicles 25:2 · SDV

This verse repeats the same wording, “right in the sight of the LORD,” then adds “but not with a perfect heart.” That added phrase opens the distinction between conduct that is right and the wholeness of the heart.

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