What Does 2 Kings 17:38 Mean?
And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.
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 the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.THE KEY
The covenant’s memory is what keeps fear from being handed to rival gods.
THE MEANING
The covenant is a bond that remains present to you now; forgetting it leaves fear open to other gods. The verse binds remembrance and allegiance together: what you remember shapes which power you fear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that forgetting the covenant is a neutral lapse: the verse links it directly to fearing other gods.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁכְּחוּ
tishkechu
GROWS FROM
שׁכח
To forget or let slip from awareness.
“forget” in this verse is tishkechu. The verse places forgetting beside fear, making memory more than a mental detail: it holds the covenant present where rival gods might otherwise claim allegiance. The same verb appears in Deuteronomy’s warning that forgetting the covenant can lead to making an image.
ALSO GROWS
shakhach: To forget, neglect
שָׁכַח
This is the verb’s basic form; it shows that forgetting can include letting something important slip from active regard.
nishkach: To be forgotten
נִשְׁכַּח
This form turns the action around: what is forgotten recedes from awareness, illuminating the verse’s concern with keeping the covenant present.
כָּרַתִּי
karatti
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or cut off; in the phrase “cut a covenant,” to establish a covenant.
“made” in this verse is karatti. The Hebrew says the covenant was “cut” with you, a vivid expression for the bond the verse calls you to remember. That cutting language gives the covenant a marked, consequential edge alongside the act of making it.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut, cut off
כָּרַת
The basic verb supplies the image behind the covenant expression in this verse.
karet: Cutting off, severance
כָּרֵת
This related form carries the root’s sense of separation, giving the covenant’s binding force a sharper boundary.
תִּירְאוּ
tîreʾû
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or revere; the response can shade toward awe depending on its object.
“fear other gods” in this verse is tîreʾû. The same root can describe fear or reverence, while the verse specifies its object: other gods. The issue is not fear in the abstract but the power receiving it.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Fear, reverence, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun shows how the root can name a response ranging from fear to reverence, depending on whom it addresses.
noraʾ: Awe-inspiring, fearsome
נוֹרָא
This form describes what evokes the response, reinforcing the verse’s focus on which power is treated as fearsome.
THE PATTERN
The covenant with God orders both memory and fear, leaving no rival power the place of ultimate allegiance.
You shall have no other gods before my face.Then guard yourself lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.THE THREAD
Guard yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he cut with you, and make for yourselves a hewn image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD your God has forbidden you.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew root for “forget” and names the covenant directly, then names the rival image that can follow. That sequence opens this verse’s pairing: forgetting the bond leaves room for allegiance and fear to settle elsewhere.
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