What Does 2 Kings 15:28 Mean?
And he did what was broken in the eyes of the LORD. He did not turn aside from the shortcomings of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel 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
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one root for Israel’s “sins” and Jeroboam’s act of making Israel “sin,” revealing how one person’s pattern of missing can spread to a people.
THE MEANING
This verse names a living pattern: the same missing persists, and what one ruler embodies becomes a people’s path. When someone’s choices shape others, repeatedly modeling a pattern can make it collective.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a leader’s choices are private: the verse says the pattern reaches the people shaped by it.
THE ROOT
חַטֹּאות
chatta'ot
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss or go wrong.
“shortcomings” in this verse is chatta'ot. The verse uses this root both for Israel’s missing and for Jeroboam’s act of making Israel miss. The shared root reveals how a pattern can pass from one person into a people.
ALSO GROWS
chata: Miss, go wrong.
חָטָא
This is the basic verb behind the verse’s language of missing.
hecheti: Cause to miss; lead into missing.
הֶחֱטִיא
This causative form names how Jeroboam’s pattern reaches Israel.
chatta't: Missing or sin; also an offering associated with missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root links the act of missing with the offering for missing.
סָר
sar
GROWS FROM
סור
Turn aside or move away; in a causative form, remove.
“did not turn aside from” in this verse is sar. The verse describes persistence as not turning aside from the inherited pattern. Alongside חטא, this gives the sentence a direction: the missing continues because there is no turning away from it.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside, withdraw.
סוּר
This is the root behind “departed,” the turn away that does not happen here.
hesir: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative branch shows the same root describing the removal of something.
THE PATTERN
A pattern of missing becomes collective when someone with influence keeps embodying and reproducing it.
And he shall give Israel over because of the shortcomings of Jeroboam, who missed the mark and who caused Israel to miss the mark.For as through the deafness of one man the many were set as those who miss the mark, so also through the hearing and response of one the many shall be set in alignment.Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?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.Both verses use the חטא root for Jeroboam’s own missing and for his causing Israel to miss. The repeated root makes the mechanism clear: one person’s course becomes a people’s course.
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