What Does 1 Samuel 2:12 Mean in the King James?

Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.

1 Samuel 2:12 · KJV

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 makes the failure relational: knowing the LORD is encounter, and without it even inherited nearness carries no worth.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks now: religious nearness and knowing the LORD are not the same thing. Here, knowing is encounter and recognition, not merely possession of information about God. The name Belial carries the shade of being without worth or benefit, giving the absence a stark shape.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A revered family line or religious proximity automatically means someone knows the LORD.

THE ROOT

יָדְעוּ

yāḏəʿū

GROWS FROM

ידע

yadaʿ

To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.

“knew” in this verse is yāḏəʿū. The verb points beyond having information: knowing the LORD is recognition through encounter. The verse places this absence at the center of its charge against Eli’s sons.

ALSO GROWS

daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.

דַּעַת

This noun belongs to the same root family, linking knowing with a recognition that can be understood and lived.

hodiʿa: To make known or inform.

הוֹדִיעַ

The causative form shows knowing as something that can be opened through disclosure, not merely accumulated as information.

בְּלִיַּעַל

bəliyyaʿal

GROWS FROM

יעל

yaʿal

To be useful, profitable, or of benefit.

Belial is often understood as a compound meaning “without profit” or “without worth,” with ⁨יעל⁩ carrying the sense of usefulness or benefit. The verse pairs that name with not knowing the LORD, making relational absence the defining emptiness.

ALSO GROWS

yaʿal: To be useful or profitable.

יָעַל

This is the root’s basic sense, which gives the name Belial its contrast of being without benefit.

hoʿil: To benefit or be of use.

הוֹעִיל

This related form makes the root’s language of benefit concrete beside the verse’s language of worthlessness.

THE PATTERN

Knowing the LORD is encounter and recognition, not possession of religious information.

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.

1 Samuel 3:7 · KJVThe same Hebrew verb describes not knowing the LORD, while “yet” leaves room for encounter still to open.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Hosea 6:3 · KJVKnowing is expressed as an unfolding pursuit of encounter, repeated in the same verb.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

John 17:3 · KJVKnowing God is named as the life of the ages, making relationship itself the substance of life.

THE THREAD

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.

1 Samuel 3:7 · KJV

This verse uses the same Hebrew root, ⁨ידע⁩, in the same phrase, but adds “yet.” Not knowing can mark an encounter that has not opened, while 1 Samuel 2:12 binds that absence to the name Belial; the contrast sharpens what the present verse says.

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