What Does 2 Chronicles 34:31 Mean in the King James?
And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
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
What the English calls “keeping” is watchful guarding, so the covenant joins a whole self walking after the LORD with careful attention to the words.
THE MEANING
You stand within a whole-life covenant: your inward center and living self belong together with a path behind the LORD. The words written in the book are held with watchful care and carried into action. Inner devotion, attention, and movement form one life here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that devotion can stay inward while direction and actions remain untouched: the verse binds the whole self to a walked path and guarded words.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמוֹר
lishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
Guard, watch over, preserve.
“keep” in this verse is lishmor. The commandments are held with the watchfulness of a guard, not merely remembered as words. The same root carries the sense of an entrusted watch, making keeping a sustained attention that accompanies the walk.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A guard or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
This branch shows the attentiveness inside the king’s charge to keep the commandments.
mishmeret: A guard duty, watch, or charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
Keeping can name an ongoing entrusted responsibility, not only a single act.
לָלֶכֶת
lalekhet
GROWS FROM
הלך
Go, walk, move along a path.
The verse says to walk after the LORD: covenant has direction and keeps the body in motion. The Hebrew verb holds ordinary walking together with a way of life, so the commitment is a path being followed.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: One going or walking.
הוֹלֵךְ
This form keeps the image of an actual person moving along the way.
halikhah: Walking, going, or a journey.
הֲלִיכָה
This branch makes the walk a course of movement, illuminating covenant as a direction carried forward.
נַפְשׁוֹ
nafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
Living self, person, life-bearing being.
“With all his soul” gathers the whole living self into the covenant, rather than isolating a detachable inner part. Joined to “all his heart,” it makes the commitment embrace the person in their entirety.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: A living soul or person.
נֶפֶשׁ
The singular word names the living self gathered into the covenant.
nefesh chayyah: A living creature.
נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
The same word can name a whole living creature, preserving its sense of embodied life.
nefashot: Living souls or persons (plural).
נְפָשׁוֹת
Its plural form can name whole persons, reinforcing that nefesh is a living being, not merely an inner fragment.
THE PATTERN
Covenant takes shape as the whole self guards its words and carries them along a lived path.
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.THE THREAD
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,This verse gathers the same walk, heart, and living soul into one line. It opens “walk after the LORD” as a whole-person movement, where love, service, and direction belong together.
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