What Does 1 Samuel 2:24 Mean in the King James?
Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD’s people to transgress.
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 pictures wrongdoing as a crossing someone can cause others to make too.
THE MEANING
Your choices can carry other people across a boundary into wrongdoing. The harm reaches the LORD’s people through the conduct that leads them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that wrongdoing stays private: this verse names conduct that carries others into the crossing too.
THE ROOT
מַעֲבִרִים
maʿăvîrîm
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
To pass over, cross, or go through; in this causative form, to cause someone to cross.
“to transgress” in this verse is maʿăvîrîm. The root holds the motion of crossing over inside “transgress.” In its causative form, the sons carry the LORD’s people across too, so the verse locates harm both in the crossing and in the influence that causes it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass over, cross, or go through.
עָבַר
The base verb pictures movement across a boundary; the verse shows the LORD’s people being carried across one.
maʿavār: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
The same root names a crossing place, giving “transgress” the image of movement over a boundary.
THE PATTERN
When conduct draws others into wrongdoing, the harm extends beyond the one who acts.
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.THE THREAD
And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.“Transgress” in both verses comes from עבר (ʿ-b-r), to cross over. Numbers depicts people crossing the LORD’s command; Samuel adds the revealing detail that someone can cause the crossing in others.
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