What Does 1 Kings 22:43 Mean in the King James?
And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.
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 same Hebrew root describes both his not turning aside and the high places not being removed, binding personal fidelity to what remains in the shared landscape.
THE MEANING
Your walk can remain aligned with the LORD while a shared practice still occupies the places around you. The verse holds both realities in view: the course is right, yet the people continue offering and burning incense in the high places. One does not erase the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a life aligned before God means every shared practice has already changed.
THE ROOT
סוּר
sur
GROWS FROM
סור
s-w-r
Turn aside, depart, or be removed.
“turned aside / taken away” in this verse is sur. The Hebrew repeats סור (sur): he does not turn aside from Asa’s way, and the high places do not depart, rendered “were not taken away.” English uses two different phrases, while Hebrew uses the same verb for his constancy and for what remains in place.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This is the action he does not take from Asa’s way.
hesir: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows how the same root can describe making something depart.
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
Tread or step; by extension, a trodden route or course.
“ways” in this verse is derek. Derek is both a path and a course of life, built from the image of treading. Asa’s way is not merely an idea carried in memory; it is a course enacted step by step.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
It names the course Jehoshaphat walks in.
darakh: Tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the steps held inside the image of a way.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
Be straight, level, or aligned.
Yashar holds straightness and rightness together. “Doing what is right” pictures a course aligned before the LORD’s eyes, even as the verse names a remainder left in place.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Straightness or uprightness.
יֹשֶׁר
It carries the root’s sense of a straight course into the quality of uprightness.
mishor: Level ground or a plain; also uprightness.
מִישׁוֹר
The image of level ground makes alignment something tangible, not merely an abstract judgment.
THE PATTERN
A life can show real fidelity while a consequential practice remains unremoved.
But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?THE THREAD
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.The word translated “ways” here is derek, the same word translated “path” there; both describe a course walked step by step. Psalm 119:105 brings the focus to the path lit at the feet, making the next step visible now.
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