What Does 2 Kings 17:32 Mean?
So they stood in awe of the LORD, and made for themselves priests of the high places from the lowest of them, who slaughtered for them in the houses of the high places.
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
So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root describes making the priests and what English calls their sacrificing: this worship is something people build and then enact.
THE MEANING
A person can feel awe toward the LORD while making a religious system shaped around human practice. Here, one Hebrew root describes making the priests and the activity rendered as sacrificing, tying the office and its rite together as human acts. The verse holds reverence and self-constructed worship side by side.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sincere awe of the LORD automatically sanctifies every religious form I build around it.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ
wayyaʿasu
GROWS FROM
עשה
to do, make, or perform
“made / sacrificed” in this verse is wayyaʿasu. The form translated “made” is wayyaʿasu, while the clause rendered “which sacrificed” uses ʿosim, literally “doing”; both grow from עשה. English separates the appointment from the rite, but Hebrew echoes one verb family across them, presenting the priesthood and its service as linked human acts.
ALSO GROWS
asah: to do, make, perform
עָשָׂה
This verb is the root behind both the making of the priests and the activity later rendered as sacrificing.
maʿaseh: deed, work, act
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun from the same root names what is done, linking the making of the priesthood to the practice carried out through it.
יְרֵאִים
yerēʾîm
GROWS FROM
ירא
to fear, revere, stand in awe
“stood in awe of” in this verse is yerēʾîm. יְרֵאִים describes the people as fearers of the LORD, with awe as its fitting force here. That awe is not denied; it sits beside their deliberate construction of priestly practice.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: fear, awe
יִרְאָה
Isaiah uses this noun from the same root for fear toward the LORD, showing how the verse’s inward reverence can be named directly.
mora: fear, dread, awe
מוֹרָא
This related word shows the root’s range of response, while here the object, the LORD, brings awe to the foreground.
THE PATTERN
Religious awe can coexist with forms of worship made and practiced by the worshipers themselves.
They stood in awe of the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they had stripped bare from there.And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.But in emptiness they stand in awe of me, teaching human commands as lessons.THE THREAD
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.The Hebrew words for “feared” here and “fear” in Isaiah share the root ירא. Isaiah makes visible a tension 2 Kings leaves beside the scene: awe toward the LORD can coexist with forms of worship shaped by people.
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