What Does 2 Chronicles 6:16 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.
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 promise and the path are held by one Hebrew root: God is asked to guard what he spoke, and the sons must guard the way they walk.
THE MEANING
For you, promise and path arrive together: what God speaks is kept, while the children keep their way by walking in instruction. The promised continuity is tied to that guarded path, measured against David’s walk before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that inheritance alone secures continuity: the verse binds the promised throne to the descendants guarding their way in instruction.
THE ROOT
שְׁמֹר
shĕmor
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
Guard, watch over, keep.
“keep / take heed” in this verse is shĕmor. Hebrew repeats one root where the KJV uses “keep” for what God has spoken and “take heed” for the sons’ way. The object shifts, but both are acts of guarding: God is asked to guard what he spoke, while the descendants guard their path.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman gives the root’s guarding sense a human form: someone who stays alert over what is entrusted.
mishmeret: Guard, charge, watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch names the duty of keeping, echoing the descendants’ responsibility toward their way.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
Direct, point, teach.
Torah grows from a root of directing and teaching, so “walk in my law” carries the sense of moving along instruction that gives direction. The verse presents instruction as a path to inhabit.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: Direct, teach, point the way.
יָרָה
This verbal branch illuminates Torah as direction that guides the walk.
moreh: Teacher, instructor.
מוֹרֶה
The instructor gives the instruction its guiding voice, linking the verse’s Torah to a way of walking.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; one held in affection.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved. In a verse that holds a promise alongside David’s walk before God, the name makes relationship part of the frame.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved, dear one; also uncle.
דּוֹד
This branch carries the beloved sense beneath David’s name.
dodim: Love, beloved affection.
דּוֹדִים
This plural form extends the root’s language of love, allowing the name David to carry more than a label.
THE PATTERN
What is entrusted is sustained through active keeping, a watchful practice rather than passive possession.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The Hebrew uses shamar twice for the LORD’s preserving action; 2 Chronicles uses that same root for what God is asked to keep and for the descendants’ keeping of their way. English spreads the root across “keep,” “take heed,” and “preserve,” while Hebrew lets the shared act of guarding remain audible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us