What Does 2 Kings 21:20 Mean?
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
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 father Manasseh did.THE KEY
Amon repeats his father’s conduct: the verse names a pattern passed on through action, with Amon still the one who acts.
THE MEANING
A harmful pattern can arrive already rehearsed, then become present again through the next person’s choices. Manasseh’s conduct provides the model, but Amon is the one who repeats it. The LORD’s sight holds the act clearly in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a pattern ends when the person who began it is gone; Amon makes his father’s conduct present again.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַשׂ
vayyaʿas
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-ś-h
To do or make; to bring an action into effect.
The Hebrew repeats the same root for Amon and Manasseh: וַיַּעַשׂ … עָשָׂה, “he did … he did.” That shared verb makes their likeness an enacted choice: the son repeats the father’s deed, while remaining the one who does it.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăśeh: Deed, work, or action.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The root’s noun form makes the action concrete: what is repeated is a deed, not merely a resemblance.
ʿōśeh: One who does or makes.
עֹשֶׂה
This form brings the actor into view, as the verse names both Amon and his father as doers.
רַע
raʿ
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or harmful; the root family can name badness and harm.
This word names moral wrong, while its root family can also describe trouble or calamity, holding wrong close to its damaging character. Here it is conduct judged evil in the LORD’s sight.
ALSO GROWS
rōaʿ: Badness or evil.
רֹעַ
This noun form keeps the verse’s judgment tied to the quality of the conduct.
rāʿāh: Evil, trouble, or calamity.
רָעָה
The wider root family includes harmful outcomes, giving “evil” the weight of what damages.
מְנַשֶּׁה
Mĕnaššeh
GROWS FROM
נשה
n-š-h
To forget; in the naming phrase, to cause someone to forget.
The name Manasseh is linked in Genesis 41:51 to the language of being made to forget. Here, the conduct associated with the name is not forgotten: his son repeats it, giving the root’s language a striking counterpoint.
ALSO GROWS
nāšāh: To forget.
נָשָׁה
This is the verb family behind the naming explanation, connecting Manasseh’s name with forgetting.
naššānî: He has made me forget.
נַשַּׁנִי
This form appears in the naming explanation in Genesis 41:51; beside this verse, its language of forgetting meets a pattern that remains active through Amon.
THE PATTERN
A parent’s conduct can become a child’s enacted pattern, while each person remains responsible for the act they themselves do.
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.The living soul that is missing shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor shall the father bear the crookedness of the son; the alignment of the aligned shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.Then Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son is not able to do anything from himself, unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does.THE THREAD
Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done more evil than all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and has made Judah also miss the mark with his idols.This verse names Manasseh’s deeds with the Hebrew root עשה (ʿāśāh, “do, make”), the same root repeated for Amon and his father here. The repeated root turns succession into enacted likeness: the father’s deeds become a pattern the son performs.
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