What Does 2 Kings 21:5 Mean?
And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two enclosed yards of the house of the LORD.
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 for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.THE KEY
Altars for the entire heavenly host stand inside the LORD’s own courts, making rival devotion part of the house’s very layout.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a collision of worship: altars are built for the host of heaven in the LORD’s own courts. Their placement makes visible how devotion can be built into a sacred space and directed toward rival powers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place does not become faithful merely because it is inside the LORD’s house; these altars stand in his courts while serving the heavenly host.
THE ROOT
צָבָא
tsava
GROWS FROM
צבא
An organized host or army; the same word can also refer to service or duty.
The Hebrew word צָבָא (tsava, host or army) presents the heavens as an ordered company, not an undefined power. Altars are built for that whole company within the LORD’s courts, so the placement itself shows where worship is being directed.
ALSO GROWS
tsava: An organized company or army.
צָבָא
This is the word rendered “host” in the verse; it makes the altars’ recipients a gathered company of heavenly powers.
tsava: Service or assigned duty.
צָבָא
The same word family connects the host with organized service, sharpening the contrast between the LORD’s courts and the powers receiving altars there.
מִזְבְּחוֹת
mizbeḥot
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“altars” in this verse is mizbeḥot. The word for altar grows from זָבַח (zavaḥ, to sacrifice or slaughter). An altar is therefore not simply a marker or decoration: the verse describes built places for offerings to the heavenly host.
ALSO GROWS
zavaḥ: To slaughter an animal or make a sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb reveals the sacrificial action that the altars make possible.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice, sometimes associated with a shared meal.
זֶבַח
This noun shows that the altar’s role reaches beyond its structure to the offering made there.
THE PATTERN
When created powers receive worship, devotion is redirected from the Creator to what is made.
And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and be driven to bow down to them and serve them, which the LORD your God has portioned out to all the nations under the whole sky.Those who make them are like them, everyone who leans on them.who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and bowed down and served the creation beside the one who created, who is praised for the ages. Amen.THE THREAD
And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and be driven to bow down to them and serve them, which the LORD your God has portioned out to all the nations under the whole sky.Both verses use צָבָא (tsava, host) for the ordered powers of heaven. Deuteronomy names the turn toward worship and service; here, altars make that turn visible within the LORD’s own courts.
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