What Does 2 Kings 17:27 Mean?
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there, and let them go and settle there, and let him train them in the judgment of the God of the land.
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
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.THE KEY
A land’s “manner” is its mishpat: the governing order its new inhabitants cannot know merely by dwelling there.
THE MEANING
You can dwell in a place without knowing the order its God claims there. A priest carried away from his own place is sent by royal command to teach the land’s mishpat, so residence and imposed instruction meet in one scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Living somewhere automatically means knowing the order that governs it.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפַּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
shaphat
To judge, decide, or govern.
Mishpat is more than a manner or local custom: it is judgment, ordinance, and the order by which a people are governed. The priest teaches the God of the land’s governing claims, so settlement alone does not make the new inhabitants fluent in its order.
ALSO GROWS
shophet: Judge; one who decides or governs.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows the ruling and judging sense carried by mishpat, beyond the sense of custom.
mishpatim: Judgments or ordinances.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
These are the concrete rulings that give a community its governing order.
וְיֹרֵם
wə-yōrēm
GROWS FROM
ירה
yarah
To direct or instruct; in another use, to cast or shoot.
The root’s sense of direction adds something to “teach”: instruction points a person toward a way. Here, the priest is directed to orient the inhabitants toward the land’s governing order.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
Torah carries instruction as direction for a way of life; here the priest’s task is to teach how the land’s order is to be lived.
moreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
The teacher directs others toward a path, matching the verse’s concern with learning how to dwell under the land’s order.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, knowing the way of God comes through instruction that shapes how people walk.
Good and straight is the LORD. Therefore he aims those who miss the mark down the way.And many peoples shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will aim us along his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion the instruction shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.This one had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and, boiling in the breath, he spoke and taught accurately the things about Jesus, knowing only the immersion of John.THE THREAD
Good and straight is the LORD. Therefore he aims those who miss the mark down the way.The Hebrew verb translated “teach” in both verses comes from יָרָה (yarah), meaning “to instruct or direct.” In Kings, a priest teaches the land’s mishpat; in the Psalm, the LORD teaches sinners “in the way,” revealing instruction as direction into a lived path.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us