What Does 2 Kings 18:25 Mean in the King James?
Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
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 threat borrows the LORD’s voice, making the promise of ruin sound like a command from God.
THE MEANING
The verse places a claimed word from the LORD beside a command to destroy. That pairing still reveals how invoking sacred authority can make ruin sound inevitable.
THE ROOT
וְהַשְׁחִיתָהּ
vehashchitah
GROWS FROM
שחת
shachat
To ruin, corrupt, or spoil.
“destroy” in this verse is vehashchitah. English presents a single act of destruction, while שחת (shachat) also names corruption and ruin. The same root describes the earth as corrupt in Genesis 6:11, joining outward destruction to a deeper condition of ruin.
ALSO GROWS
vattishachet: Was corrupt.
וַתִּשָּׁחֵת
This form describes the earth in Genesis 6:11, showing that the root can name corruption as well as destruction.
hamashchit: The destroyer.
הַמַּשְׁחִית
This noun in Exodus 12:23 names an agent of destruction, extending the root from the act of ruin to the one who carries it out.
THE PATTERN
A claim to speak for God still requires discernment; the claim itself does not establish the message’s source.
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.THE THREAD
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.The verb rendered destroy here and corrupt there comes from the same root, שחת (shachat). Its echo joins the threat of outward destruction with the root’s language of corruption and ruin.
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