What Does 2 Kings 21:4 Mean?
And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I set my name.
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 built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.THE KEY
A place can bear God’s name while its contents contradict God’s nature.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s house stands in Jerusalem, where he says he sets his שֵׁם (shem, name as nature). This verse exposes the rupture: the space marked for that nature contains altars that make rival claims.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place does not embody God’s nature merely because it carries God’s name.
THE ROOT
אָשִׂים
ʾāśîm
GROWS FROM
שים
To put, set, or place.
The LORD says he will set his name in Jerusalem; שֵׁם (shem, name as nature) makes that placement the city’s declared identity. Altars in the LORD’s house make the contradiction physical.
ALSO GROWS
śām: He put, set, or placed.
שָׂם
This form shows the same root’s concrete act of placing, which gives force to the LORD’s declaration that his name is set in Jerusalem.
yāśîm: He will put or set.
יָשִׂים
This form carries the same root into a future placing, echoing the LORD’s stated intention for Jerusalem.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) in its name. The LORD places his name there, while rival altars occupy the house at its center: the place’s named wholeness and its contents now pull in opposite directions.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch brings out the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name, sharpening the contrast with the competing altars.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch describes the state of wholeness, connecting the city’s name with the nature the LORD declares there.
מִזְבְּחוֹת
mizbeḥot
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“altars” in this verse is mizbeḥot. The Hebrew word for altar grows from the root for slaughter and sacrifice, so these are more than rival objects in a room: they are sacrificial sites inside the house bearing the LORD’s name. That physical occupation makes the conflict visible.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb names the act for which an altar is used, revealing what the built structures are meant to host.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or slaughtered offering.
זֶבַח
This related noun makes the altar’s connection to sacrifice explicit and concrete.
THE PATTERN
God’s name identifies the nature of a dwelling, whether that dwelling is a city, a sanctuary, or a people.
But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to place his nature there, even to his dwelling you shall seek, and there you shall come.And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,I have made your nature visible to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have guarded your word.THE THREAD
That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.Solomon describes the temple as the house where the LORD’s שֵׁם (shem, name) is set, the same claim repeated in 2 Kings 21:4. Read together, the verses expose the rupture: the house marked by God’s nature now contains altars that contradict it.
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