What Does 2 Kings 15:9 Mean?
And he did what was broken in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. 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, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.THE KEY
One Hebrew root names both Israel’s “sins” and Jeroboam “making Israel sin”: the same missing is repeated and then reproduced.
THE MEANING
The verse names a live pattern: what remains unturned keeps repeating, and its influence can draw others into the same missing. A pattern that appears personal can become a shared direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an uncorrected pattern stays private: the same root links repeated missing with leading others into it.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאות
chatta'ot
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
To miss or go wrong; a missing.
“shortcomings” in this verse is chatta'ot. The two English phrases rest on one seed: חטא (chata, to miss or go wrong). The verse names both the missing itself and the act of leading others into missing with that root, so repetition and influence are one mechanism in the line.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A missing or offense.
חֵטְא
It names the kind of repeated wrongness expressed as “sins” in the verse.
hecheti: Caused to miss; led into missing.
הֶחֱטִיא
This causative form carries the same root from the king’s repeated missing to its spread through Israel.
סָר
sar
GROWS FROM
סור
sur
To turn aside or depart; in causative forms, to remove or take away.
“did not turn aside from” in this verse is sar. The form סָר (sar, turned aside or departed) makes the absent motion plain: he does not turn away. A causative branch of סור (sur, turn aside or depart) also means to remove or take away, so the unmade turn is where the old pattern remains.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside; depart.
סוּר
This is the base verb behind סָר (sar, turned aside or departed) in the verse.
hesir: Remove; take away.
הֵסִיר
The same root extends from turning aside to removing something from its place.
THE PATTERN
An unturned pattern persists through repetition and spreads through the people it shapes.
And when the judge died, they turned back and ruined themselves more than their fathers, walking after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not let fall from their doings, nor from their stiff way.And might not be like their fathers, a generation that turns aside and resists; a generation that did not set its heart firm, and whose breath was not steady with God.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.This verse uses חַטָּאות (chatta’ot, missings), חָטָא (chata, missed or did wrong), and הֶחֱטִיא (hecheti, caused to miss), all from חטא (chata, to miss or go wrong). The repeated root makes the link explicit: one person’s missing becomes a path that leads a people into missing with him.
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