What Does 1 Kings 15:3 Mean in the King James?
And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
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’s “not perfect” is a heart not whole with the LORD, even as its feet keep walking an inherited path.
THE MEANING
A life can keep repeating a parent’s pattern while the heart remains exposed in its own relation to the LORD. Here “perfect” carries the sense of wholeness: an inner life gathered wholly with God. David, the beloved, is the comparison for that undivided heart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that carrying a revered family line guarantees a whole heart before God; ancestry cannot stand in for inward wholeness.
THE ROOT
שָׁלֵם
shalem
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound; to bring to completion.
The Hebrew describes the heart as not whole with the LORD, adding the sense of integrity beneath “perfect.” The same root family holds wholeness together with well-being, so the verse speaks of the heart’s undivided state, not merely a record of flawless acts.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
The shared root makes the verse’s “perfect” resonate with wholeness, the heart gathered into integrity.
shelamim: Well-being or peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
This branch carries the same root into worship, showing how the word family around wholeness extends beyond a private feeling.
חַטֹּאות
chatta’ot
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, miss the mark, or go wrong.
The plural “sins” carries the sense of repeated misses; paired with “walked in,” those misses become a path. The root keeps their direction visible: the verse describes an ongoing way of moving, not a detached label.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or go wrong
חָטָא
This verb is the seed behind the plural misses named in the verse.
chatta’t: A missing or wrongdoing; in sacrificial contexts, an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The related noun keeps the idea of a miss visible even where English gives it the broader label “sin.”
THE PATTERN
Undivided allegiance shows itself in the direction the heart gives its repeated steps.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.THE THREAD
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.This verse repeats the Hebrew phrase לְבָבוֹ שָׁלֵם (levavo shalem), “his heart whole,” and the same comparison with David. The shared root makes wholeness the hinge: when the heart turns elsewhere, its wholeness with the LORD is fractured.
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