What Does 1 Kings 21:26 Mean in the King James?
And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom 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 Hebrew for “cast out” belongs to the same root that also means “inherit,” so dispossession and possession meet in one word-family.
THE MEANING
What a person follows shapes the path they walk; this verse treats that allegiance as consequential, not harmless. It names the pursuit of idols abominable and places beside it the brutal image of a people driven from their place. The warning speaks now wherever a path of allegiance ends in someone being dispossessed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what someone follows is harmless if it stays private: the verse ties pursuit to the violent displacement of a people.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁ
horish
GROWS FROM
ירש
Possess or inherit; in the causative form used here, dispossess or drive out.
The verb translated “cast out” is a causative form of yarash, a root that also names inheriting or taking possession. Removal and transfer of possession sit in one word-family, leaving the verse’s violence visible.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: Possess, occupy, or inherit
יָרַשׁ
The root holds both taking possession and the displacement that can make it possible.
yerushah: Inheritance or possession
יְרֻשָּׁה
This noun makes the other side of the verse’s dispossession audible: what is taken from one can become another’s possession.
לָלֶכֶת אַחֲרֵי
lalechet acharei
GROWS FROM
הלך
Go or walk.
English condenses “walking after” into “following”; the Hebrew keeps the follower in motion behind what leads. Allegiance appears as a path being walked, not merely a label attached to belief.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: Walk or go
הָלַךְ
The root makes the verse’s image of following concrete: a direction is traveled.
holekh: One who walks or goes
הוֹלֵךְ
The follower is pictured as someone moving along behind what they pursue.
גִּלּוּלִים
gillulim
GROWS FROM
גלל
Roll; the noun’s connection to this root is commonly proposed, though its precise derivation is uncertain.
Gillulim is a contemptuous Hebrew term for idols, not a neutral label; some lexicons connect it with galal, “to roll,” and dung imagery. That word history is debated, so the secure point is the term’s scorn, with the rolling resonance as a possible layer.
ALSO GROWS
galal: Roll or roll away
גָּלַל
The commonly proposed link gives the idol-word a coarse, physical edge, though it does not settle the noun’s exact origin.
galgal: Wheel or rolling thing
גַּלְגַּל
This related form shows the root’s concrete sense of rolling; it offers a possible resonance rather than proof of the idol-word’s derivation.
THE PATTERN
The object followed is never inert: it forms the follower and redirects allegiance.
Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.THE THREAD
Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?Ezekiel uses the same Hebrew term for idols and places them in the heart. It opens “walking after” as an allegiance carried within the person, while keeping the verse’s concrete image of a stumbling block.
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