What Does 2 Kings 23:27 Mean?
And the LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from before my face, as I have removed Israel, and will throw away this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there."
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 LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.THE KEY
The city God chose and marked with his nature is still the city he casts off.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the reader before a hard pairing: the city God chose and the house where his name, his nature, is said to dwell are also subject to rejection. Judah is removed in the same pattern as Israel; choice and the divine name do not erase the stated casting off. Both the choosing and the rejection remain together in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a place bearing God’s name is therefore untouchable: the verse places God’s choice and God’s rejection over Jerusalem in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
אָסִיר
'asir
GROWS FROM
סור
sur
Turn aside, depart, or remove.
The Hebrew repeats סור (sur, turn aside/remove): first for Israel, then for Judah. The repetition makes Judah’s removal a continuation of the same action, not a different fate.
ALSO GROWS
hasiroti: I removed.
הֲסִרֹתִי
This is the same root used of Israel earlier in the verse, directly linking Israel’s removal with Judah’s.
sar: Turned aside, departed.
סָר
This form shows the movement carried by the root: removal is a turning away or departure.
מָאַסְתִּי
ma'asti
GROWS FROM
מאס
ma'as
Reject, refuse, or regard as unacceptable.
“throw away” in this verse is ma'asti. The Hebrew says Jerusalem is rejected, not merely relocated. Set beside the word for “chosen,” this verb holds selection and rejection together without softening either.
ALSO GROWS
ma'us: Rejected, despised.
מָאוּס
The related form describes the state of what has been refused, giving “cast off” the force of rejection.
lim'os: To reject, refuse.
לִמְאָס
This infinitive makes clear that the verse’s casting off is an act of refusal.
בָּחַרְתִּי
bacharti
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
Choose, select.
The verse names Jerusalem as deliberately selected, then says it is rejected. Here, being chosen does not mean being beyond change or removal.
ALSO GROWS
bachir: Chosen one, elect.
בָּחִיר
This form carries the language of selection into a person or thing identified as chosen.
mivchar: Choice, best selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch keeps the sense of deliberate selection present in the description of Jerusalem.
THE PATTERN
A place bearing God’s name can still be removed from his presence, even after being chosen.
Therefore the LORD burned hot with anger against Israel, and removed them from his face. None was left but the tribe of Judah alone.Therefore I will do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you lean your full weight upon, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.Remember, then, from where you have fallen, and turn, and do the first works; but if not, I come to you quickly and will move your lampstand from its place, unless you turn.THE THREAD
Therefore the LORD burned hot with anger against Israel, and removed them from his face. None was left but the tribe of Judah alone.This verse uses the same Hebrew root סור (sur, turn aside/remove) for Israel’s removal. Judah is the exception named there; here, the same root reaches Judah, making the repetition itself the link.
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