What Does 1 Kings 16:25 Mean in the King James?
But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him.
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
What the English calls “evil” and “worse” is the same Hebrew root twice: Omri does the evil, then exceeds every predecessor in it.
THE MEANING
Harm stands exposed before the LORD, even when it has become familiar. The same root names both doing evil and exceeding what came before, so a repeated pattern can deepen rather than become ordinary. The past does not set the limit of what the present can become.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a wrong becomes harmless because it is familiar or inherited. What is passed down can be intensified.
THE ROOT
הָרַע
hāraʿ
GROWS FROM
רָעַע
To be bad or do evil; to cause harm.
“evil / did worse” in this verse is hāraʿ. The verse uses the same root first for the evil Omri does and then for his exceeding those before him. The comparison is not separate from the act: the same harm is repeated and intensified.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Evil, bad.
רַע
This form names the evil itself; the verse’s verbs show that the same root also describes doing it.
raʿah: To do evil, to harm.
רָעָה
This verbal branch makes evil an action, connecting the root directly to what Omri does.
THE PATTERN
Harm grows when inherited patterns are repeated, allowing the present to exceed the past.
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.THE THREAD
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.The words translated “wickedness” and “evil” in Genesis come from the same רָעַע (raʿaʿ, be bad or do evil) root. Genesis traces the pattern through thought; 1 Kings shows it in repeated action that surpasses what came before.
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