What Does 1 Kings 12:30 Mean in the King James?
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse puts the miss inside a journey of worship: sacred movement can still travel in the wrong direction.
THE MEANING
A reader can move toward worship and still be on a path that misses its mark. The direction of devotion is part of the meaning here: sacred intent does not make every chosen approach whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that an act is aligned simply because it is performed as worship.
THE ROOT
לְחַטָּאת
leḥaṭṭā't
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, fail, or go wrong.
The word translated “sin” belongs to a family built around missing or going wrong; this same family can also name an offering for the missing. The verse places that miss inside a movement of worship, showing that religious devotion does not erase the question of alignment.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭā': To miss, fail, or sin.
חָטָא
The verb shows the action behind the verse’s noun: sin is a missing, not merely a label placed on an act.
ḥōṭē': One who misses or sins.
חוֹטֵא
This branch makes the root personal: a miss can describe the one moving along the path, not only the act.
ḥaṭṭā't: Sin; an offering for sin.
חַטָּאת
The word can name both the missing and an offering for it, keeping the failure and its remedy within one root family.
וַיֵּלְכוּ
vayyēlekhū
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To go or walk.
“went” in this verse is vayyēlekhū. The Hebrew verb pictures the people going; the KJV makes the worship purpose explicit. Beside חטא, the movement remains visible beneath the translation: a journey toward worship can still carry a miss in its direction.
ALSO GROWS
hōlēkh: One who goes or walks.
הֹלֵךְ
This form keeps the root grounded in a person in motion, as the verse describes the people traveling toward a destination.
halikhah: Walking or going.
הֲלִיכָה
The noun preserves the act of moving along a way, making the verse’s physical journey part of its meaning.
THE PATTERN
Devotion is not self-validating: its object and inner alignment still matter.
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:THE THREAD
Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.The same Hebrew root חטא (ḥāṭā’, to miss or sin) names the failure in both verses. Proverbs pairs the miss with hasty feet, revealing how movement itself can carry someone away from the right path.
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