What Does 2 Kings 17:26 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
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 word rendered “manner” is mishpat, the judgment that orders life in the land, so the repeated ignorance reaches into the conditions of life itself.
THE MEANING
You can inhabit a place without knowing the order by which its God governs it; this verse sets that ignorance beside lethal consequence. It says the God of the land sends lions among the people, and they kill them. The verse names their not knowing as the reason, twice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Living somewhere does not mean you already know the order that governs it.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפַּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שׁפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide, and govern through judgment.
“manner” in this verse is mishpat. Mishpat can name a judgment, ordinance, or custom: a way life is ordered under authority. Here the verse repeats that the people do not know the mishpat of the God of the land, and names this ignorance as the reason for the lions.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or render a decision.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows the action inside mishpat: judgment gives form to the order named in the verse.
shofet: A judge, one who renders judgment.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch connects the land’s mishpat to the authority of the God whose order its inhabitants do not know.
יָדְעוּ
yadəʿu
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“know” in this verse is yadəʿu. Yada carries the sense of knowing through recognition and encounter. Paired with mishpat, it makes the question whether the people recognize the order of the God whose land they inhabit.
ALSO GROWS
yodeaʿ: A person who knows or recognizes.
יֹדֵעַ
This form shows the same root describing a knower, making the verse’s question about recognition rather than a detached label.
maddaʿ: Knowledge or understanding.
מַדָּע
The noun grows from the same seed as yada; the verse uses the verb to say the people lack recognition of the land’s mishpat.
THE PATTERN
The God whose judgment orders life in the land also orders the boundaries in which all peoples dwell.
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;THE THREAD
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.Kings repeats “know not the mishpat”; Jeremiah brings the same roots together in “knoweth me” and “judgment.” It opens the phrase as knowing the God whose judgment is active in the earth.
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