What Does 2 Kings 15:12 Mean in the King James?
This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass.
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 Hebrew word translated “word” can also mean “matter” or “thing”: the utterance and the event it becomes belong to one word-family.
THE MEANING
A word spoken with the LORD’s authority reaches into the visible shape of life: here, a family line sits on Israel’s throne through the fourth generation. The verse holds fulfillment and limit together, the word comes to pass, and it names the boundary of its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that the LORD’s word remains only speech is undone here: “And so it came to pass” joins the utterance to what happens.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
The verse places the LORD’s word beside its fulfillment: Hebrew dābār can name both a word and a matter or thing. English separates the spoken promise from the event, while the Hebrew word-family lets utterance and outcome draw close.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The promise is spoken, then becomes the matter described by the verse’s closing phrase.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֶּר
This verbal form shares the root of dābār, tying the LORD’s speaking to the word that comes to pass.
יָשַׁב
yāšab
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“sit” in this verse is yāšab. Yāšab describes a posture and a residence: the promise is that Jehu’s descendants will occupy the throne across generations. That continuity has a stated boundary, the fourth generation.
ALSO GROWS
yāšab: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The throne is held as a place of continued residence, not merely named as a passing encounter.
môšāb: A seat, dwelling, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related form makes the link between sitting and settled residence visible in the promise of a continuing line.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken by the LORD takes form in what happens, and its fulfillment can be seen in the world.
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.Both verses use יָשַׁב (yāšab, “sit; dwell”) for Jehu’s descendants on Israel’s throne. The promise’s wording returns here with its stated duration, and “so it came to pass” marks that the line reaches the fourth generation.
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