What Does 2 Chronicles 27:2 Mean in the King James?

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly.

2 Chronicles 27:2 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

A son can follow his father’s rightness without repeating his temple trespass, even while the people remain in active ruin.

THE MEANING

A good pattern can be inherited without being copied whole: one person’s course can be straight while the community remains in disorder. Your own alignment does not mean the people around you have already changed; the verse holds both realities in view.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that family patterns must be repeated whole, or that one person’s right action means the surrounding community has changed.

THE ROOT

מַשְׁחִיתִים

mashchitim

GROWS FROM

שחת

To ruin, spoil, or destroy.

“corruptly” in this verse is mashchitim. The people’s corruption is ongoing action: they are actively ruining. The same root can describe destruction itself, giving this final phrase the force of a community still coming apart.

ALSO GROWS

shachat: To ruin, spoil, or destroy.

שָׁחַת

The verb makes corruption a process of damage, not just a label applied to people.

mashchit: Destroyer; one who brings ruin.

מַשְׁחִית

This form names an agent of destruction, echoing the active force of the people’s ongoing corruption.

הַיָּשָׁר

hayyashar

GROWS FROM

ישר

To be straight or level; to make straight.

“right” in this verse is hayyashar. The word carries the image of a straight course. Set beside the people’s ongoing ruin, it lets one person’s alignment remain distinct from the disorder around him.

ALSO GROWS

yashar: To be straight or level; to make straight.

יָשַׁר

The verbal form presents rightness as a course that holds its line.

mesharim: Uprightness or equity.

מֵישָׁרִים

This related form extends straightness into a quality of conduct, showing the depth beneath “right.”

THE PATTERN

One person’s alignment can remain real while disorder persists around them.

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:9 · KJVNoah’s way is described as just and steady within his generation, keeping personal integrity distinct from its surrounding setting.

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

1 John 5:19 · KJVThe verse holds belonging to God and the world’s disorder in the same frame.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Philippians 2:15 · KJVA blameless life remains possible in the middle of a crooked and perverse community.

THE THREAD

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Genesis 6:12 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨שחת⁩ (shachat), meaning “to ruin” or “destroy”: the people in Chronicles are still ruining, while Genesis applies the same root to the earth and the way of all flesh. The shared root reveals corruption as an active unraveling that can spread through an entire community.

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