What Does 2 Kings 17:21 Mean in the King James?
For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
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 makes the great sin communal by repeating one seed: Jeroboam causes Israel to miss, then names that missing as their shared condition.
THE MEANING
A rupture in authority can reach into what a community follows: Israel is driven away from following the LORD, and the missing becomes shared. The verse places the separation from David’s house beside this deeper displacement, showing how far a break can spread.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a ruler’s decisions stay at the level of politics; this verse shows power reaching into what a whole people follows and practices.
THE ROOT
וַיַּחֲטִאֵם
vayyaḥaṭiʾēm
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss; go wrong; sin.
“made them sin; sin” in this verse is vayyaḥaṭiʾēm. The verb is causative: Jeroboam causes the people to miss, and the following noun repeats the same root in a great sin. The shared seed makes the deviation communal, not merely individual.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss; to sin.
חָטָא
This verb shows the movement beneath the familiar word sin: a deviation, a missing.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root can name the missing and an offering associated with it, keeping both within one field of meaning.
ḥōṭēʾ: One who misses or sins.
חֹטֵא
The root can name the person caught in the act, as well as the act itself.
וַיַּדַּח
vayyaddaḥ
GROWS FROM
נדח
Thrust away, drive off, banish.
“drave” in this verse is vayyaddaḥ. The Hebrew phrase מֵאַחֲרֵי יְהוָה (mēʾaḥărê YHWH, from following the LORD) pictures the people as following after him. Jeroboam thrusts them out of that following: this is displacement, not simply a change of preference.
ALSO GROWS
niddāḥ: One driven away; an outcast.
נִדָּח
This branch names the condition of those the verse says are driven from following.
hiddiaḥ: To drive away; lead astray.
הִדִּיחַ
The causative form carries the same force of pushing someone away from a path.
קָרַע
qāraʿ
GROWS FROM
קרע
Tear, split apart, rend.
“rent” in this verse is qāraʿ. Rend names an actual tearing, not a neutral transfer of power. The verse’s first fracture, Israel torn from David’s house, stands beside the later displacement from following the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
qeraʿ: A tear or rent.
קֶרַע
The noun names the breach left by the act of tearing.
qəriʿāh: Tearing or rending.
קְרִיעָה
This branch keeps the force of the root visible: the separation is a rupture.
THE PATTERN
When a guide redirects what a community follows, the deviation spreads beyond the guide to the people being led.
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.THE THREAD
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.The same root חטא (ḥṭʾ, miss or sin) names the sin in both verses. This verse makes the collective missing visible as a shared practice: people are directed toward a place of worship shaped by the king.
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