What Does 2 Kings 15:35 Mean?
Only the high places did not turn aside, and the people still slaughtered and made smoke rise on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house 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
Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.THE KEY
A new gate rises at the LORD’s house while the old high places keep receiving sacrifice: building upward does not mean turning away.
THE MEANING
A new sacred structure can take shape beside an old practice that still receives attention. The verse holds both in view: the LORD’s house gains an upper gate, while people continue to sacrifice and burn incense at the high places. Visible change and continued practice occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A visible improvement does not prove that what was already in place has been released.
THE ROOT
סָרוּ
saru
GROWS FROM
סור
sur
To turn aside, depart, or move away; by extension, to remove.
“did not turn aside” in this verse is saru. The Hebrew form means “turned aside” or “departed,” so removal carries the sense of a change in direction as well as clearing a site. The high places remain in use: the verse describes a practice that has not turned away.
ALSO GROWS
sur: To turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This root makes removal a movement away, not only the clearing of a physical place.
sar: Turned aside or departed.
סָר
Exodus 32:8 uses this same root for turning aside from the way, linking removal here with a change of direction.
עֶלְיוֹן
elyon
GROWS FROM
עלה
alah
To go up or ascend.
“upper” in this verse is elyon. The gate is described with language of ascent. That same root family names both an ascent and an offering that goes up in smoke, placing elevation and worship in the same field of imagery while the high-place worship continues.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: Ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
It shows that the gate’s “upper” position belongs to a wider family of ascent language.
olah: A burnt offering; literally, something that goes up.
עֹלָה
This root also names an offering by its upward movement, echoing the verse’s picture of worship continuing as the upper gate is built.
THE PATTERN
A visible religious improvement can stand beside a practice that remains untouched.
He removed the high places, broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel made smoke rise to it. And he called it Nehushtan, the bronze thing.When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.Woe to you, writers and separated ones, masked ones! For you make clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but within they are filled from grasping and from what has no grip.THE THREAD
They have swiftly turned aside from the way I commanded them. They have made for themselves a poured calf, and have bowed down to it, and have slaughtered to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.Exodus uses the root סור (sur, “turn aside” or “depart”) for turning aside from the way; 2 Kings uses it for the high places not being removed. The shared root makes removal a matter of direction as well as clearing a site, sharpening the contrast between the new gate and the worship that continues.
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