What Does 2 Kings 17:34 Mean in the King James?
Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
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 verse exposes the gap between continuity and allegiance: familiar practice can persist without reverence for the LORD.
THE MEANING
This verse names a gap you can recognize now: inherited patterns may continue while awe of the LORD and the LORD’s instruction no longer guide a life. Continuity of custom does not establish alignment; the verse holds the repeated practice and the missing reverence side by side. יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el, one who strives with God) carries relationship in its name, even as the verse exposes the distance between inherited practice and the LORD’s instruction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that keeping inherited religious forms proves that the LORD is being revered.
THE ROOT
יָרֵא
yare
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in awe.
The verse’s “fear not” is a lack of awe toward the LORD, not merely an absence of alarm. The root links that posture to both fear and awe, revealing what the repeated practices cannot supply on their own.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun from the same root names the inward posture missing from the verse.
nora: Arousing awe or fear.
נוֹרָא
This branch shows the root can describe the quality that calls forth awe.
מִצְוָה
mitzvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
To command or charge.
The Hebrew joins “commandment” and “commanded” through the same root: mitzvah … tsivvah. English separates them, while the repeated root makes the contrast sharper between the LORD’s command and the people’s continuing pattern.
ALSO GROWS
tsivvah: He commanded.
צִוָּה
This is the verb used where the verse says the LORD commanded.
tsav: A command or order.
צַו
This shorter form makes the shared command-root visible across related words.
שָׂם
sam
GROWS FROM
שים
To put, place, or set.
The Hebrew wording says the LORD “set his name” Israel, where the KJV says “named.” A name carries nature: יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el, one who strives with God) puts relationship with God at the center of the identity the verse invokes.
ALSO GROWS
sam: Set or placed.
שָׂם
This is the verb behind the KJV’s “named,” making the act more concrete.
lasum: To put or set.
לָשׂוּם
This infinitive from the same root reinforces the Hebrew sense of placing a name.
THE PATTERN
Inherited observances can continue while reverence and alignment with divine instruction are absent.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.THE THREAD
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,The same Hebrew root ירא (yare, fear or awe) appears here as “fear,” addressed to Israel itself. Awe is joined to walking, loving, and serving, so 2 Kings’ “fear not” names a fracture in the whole way of life, not an isolated emotion.
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