What Does 2 Chronicles 25:2 Mean in the King James?

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.

2 Chronicles 25:2 · 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

Right actions can be real while the heart behind them remains less than whole.

THE MEANING

You can do what is right and still not be wholly present in it. The verse holds both truths together: your actions may be right in the LORD’s sight while your heart remains divided or incomplete.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that doing what is right proves the heart is already whole.

THE ROOT

שָׁלֵם

shalem

GROWS FROM

שלם

To be whole, complete, or intact; the same root also carries the sense of well-being and making good.

“perfect” in this verse is shalem. The heart is described as shalem, whole or complete, not simply flawless. The verse holds two measures together: the deed can be right while the inner life has not yet come into the same wholeness.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, well-being

שָׁלוֹם

This branch shows the breadth of shalem: wholeness reaches beyond outward conduct into the state of the whole person.

shillem: To repay, recompense, or make good

שִׁלֵּם

This branch carries the sense of restoring what is due or making something whole, echoing the completeness missing from the heart in this verse.

THE PATTERN

A life can display right conduct while its heart remains divided in its allegiance.

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

1 Kings 8:61 · KJVThe same word for a whole heart makes explicit the inner completeness that right conduct alone does not establish.

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24 · KJVThe divided allegiance described here shows why outward service does not by itself reveal an undivided heart.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

James 1:8 · KJVThe double-minded heart gives a name to the inner division that can coexist with visible action.

THE THREAD

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

1 Kings 8:61 · KJV

The same Hebrew adjective, shalem (whole, complete), describes the heart in both verses. That shared root brings the distinction into focus: right actions and a whole heart are related, but they are not the same thing.

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