What Does 1 Kings 14:24 Mean in the King James?
And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
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 word rendered “sodomites” shares its root with “holy,” exposing how consecration language can name a role whose practice the verse condemns.
THE MEANING
The verse places a consecrated role beside practices it calls abominations; sacred standing alone does not settle whether those practices belong within the covenant. It speaks to you now wherever a sacred name and the conduct beneath it are in conflict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A religious title or setting makes whatever it shelters acceptable to God.
THE ROOT
קָדֵשׁ
qādēš
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
To set apart; consecrate.
“sodomites” in this verse is qādēš. In this context, the noun is usually understood as a male cult functionary, often specifically a cult prostitute; it names a cultic role rather than a sexual orientation. Its shared root with words for “holy” and “sacred” creates the verse’s tension: consecration language marks the role, while the verse places its practice among what it rejects.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root and shows how the same set-apart language can name a calling to holiness.
qōdesh: Sacredness; a holy thing or place.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch brings the role’s sacred register into view, while the verse’s next clause makes clear that consecrated language does not itself mean approval.
THE PATTERN
Consecration names a calling whose meaning is shown by the conduct attached to it.
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;THE THREAD
And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.This verse uses the same root, קדשׁ (q-d-sh, “set apart”), and places those houses beside the house of the LORD. The shared root and physical proximity sharpen the tension: cultic status and divine approval are not identical.
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