What Does 2 Kings 11:18 Mean in the King James?
And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD.
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 transfer of worship is not symbolic here: it is enacted through demolition, a priest’s killing, and the staffing of the house that remains.
THE MEANING
You meet allegiance as material power: Baal’s house and altars are broken down, and Mattan is killed before them. The LORD’s house receives officers, keeping the violence of the break beside the organized oversight that follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that religious change is a clean change of symbols: the verse names a demolished house, a slain priest, and an organized transfer of authority.
THE ROOT
מִזְבְּחוֹת
mizbechot
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter or sacrifice
The Hebrew word for altar, מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach), grows from זבח, “to slaughter or sacrifice.” Mattan is killed before Baal’s altars, placing the root’s sacrificial meaning beside an actual killing; the verse does not hide the violence inside a tidy religious transition.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to slaughter or sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb gives the altar its root sense and makes the killing before it especially stark.
zevach: a sacrifice or sacrificial meal
זֶבַח
This noun shows how the same root names both the act of sacrifice and what is offered.
פְּקִדֹת
peqidōt
GROWS FROM
פקד
to attend to, oversee, muster, or appoint
“Officers” comes from a word family of attending to, mustering, and appointing. After Baal’s house is demolished and its priest killed, this root names the oversight assigned to the LORD’s house: the verse shows the order that follows the rupture, without making the rupture peaceful.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: to attend to, visit, appoint, or muster
פָּקַד
This verb’s range links oversight with active attention and appointment.
pequddah: oversight, charge, or appointment
פְּקֻדָּה
This noun names the responsibility entrusted to those placed over the LORD’s house.
THE PATTERN
A turn from rival worship becomes visible in what is dismantled and in what receives renewed service.
And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;THE THREAD
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.The “officers” over the LORD’s house are פְּקִדֹת (peqidōt), from פקד (paqad), the same root behind “visit” in Joseph’s promise that God will surely visit his people. The root carries attention and oversight across both verses: here officers are assigned to the house, while there God attends to the people and brings them out.
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