What Does 2 Kings 17:17 Mean?
And they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and used divination and read omens, and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
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 they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.THE KEY
The verse holds two directions of harm together: children are made to pass through fire, while those responsible sell themselves into evil.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the cost of destructive devotion visible in the bodies of children and in the deliberate self-giving of those who carry it out. Divination, enchantment, and child sacrifice are joined as practices turned toward evil in the sight of the LORD. The line holds the children’s suffering and the perpetrators’ agency in view at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that spiritual practice can be separated from its effects on other people: here, devotion is bound to harm against sons and daughters and to a chosen commitment to evil.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְמַכְּרוּ
wayyitmakkeru
GROWS FROM
מכר
m-k-r
to sell or transfer ownership in exchange
“sold themselves” in this verse is wayyitmakkeru. The verb’s form is reflexive in shape: they sell themselves, giving themselves over to wrongdoing. The verse therefore holds the children’s imposed suffering beside the self-sale of those responsible.
ALSO GROWS
māḵar: to sell
מָכַר
This is the root verb beneath “sold themselves,” making the language of exchange explicit.
mimkār: merchandise; something sold
מִמְכָּר
This branch carries the root’s sense of a person or thing treated as something transferred.
mekhīrāh: a sale
מְכִירָה
It names the transaction implicit in the verse’s image of self-sale.
וַיַּעֲבִירוּ
wayyaʿăvîrû
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
to pass over or cross; in this verb form, to cause someone to pass
“caused their sons and their daughters to pass through” in this verse is wayyaʿăvîrû. The causative verb makes the sons and daughters the objects of the action: they are made to cross through the fire. The root keeps the physical act in view rather than letting “pass through” become an abstract ritual phrase.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass or cross
עָבַר
This is the basic action carried by the verse’s causative form.
maʿăvār: a crossing or passage
מַעֲבָר
This noun preserves the root’s sense of movement across.
ʿēver: the other side; beyond
עֵבֶר
It shows how the same root can name what lies across the boundary.
THE PATTERN
Yielding to a destructive power makes its allegiance visible in bodies, actions, and death.
You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every recoiling thing to the LORD, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they slaughtered to the idols of Canaan, and the land was stained with blood.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 they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come up in my heart that they should do this recoiling thing, to cause Judah to miss the mark.Jeremiah uses the same causative form of עבר: sons and daughters are made to pass through the fire. It names Baal and Molech and calls the act an abomination, keeping the physical violence in view.
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