What Does 2 Kings 21:14 Mean in the King James?
And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
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’s pivot is the act of giving: abandonment places the remnant inside its enemies’ hands.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a terrible exposure: what is named as inheritance is abandoned, placed in enemy hands, and made prey and plunder. It does not soften that violence or hide what forsaking means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being claimed as an inheritance guarantees continued protection is undone here: the one who calls them his inheritance also says he will forsake them.
THE ROOT
וּנְתַתִּים
u-netattim
GROWS FROM
נתן
give, set, place
The verb translated “deliver” comes from נתן (natan, to give, set, or place). The verse presents the handover as placement: the remnant is put within the reach of its enemies.
ALSO GROWS
nittan: be given, be placed
נִתַּן
This form makes the receiving side of the transfer visible: what is given over comes under another’s power.
mattanah: gift, something given
מַתָּנָה
This noun carries the same seed of giving; here, that transfer is starkly into enemy hands.
שְׁאֵרִית
she'erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
remain, be left
The root holds the sense of what remains or is left over. The verse’s remnant is not a promise of safety; its name keeps the reader aware that it is what is left, and that even this remainder is abandoned.
ALSO GROWS
nish'ar: remains, is left
נִשְׁאַר
This verb shows the root’s living sense of being what is still there after others or other things are gone.
she'ar: remainder, rest
שְׁאָר
This related form keeps the idea of a remaining portion close to “remnant.”
וְנָטַשְׁתִּי
ve-natashti
GROWS FROM
נטש
abandon, leave behind
“forsake” in this verse is ve-natashti. The verse pairs two different roots in a sharp echo: the remnant is what remains, and God says he will abandon it. The next phrase makes that abandonment concrete by placing the remnant into enemy hands.
ALSO GROWS
nittash: is abandoned, is left behind
נִטַּשׁ
This form turns the act of forsaking into the condition of being left exposed.
natush: forsaken, abandoned
נָטוּשׁ
This related form carries the state produced by the verb in the verse.
THE PATTERN
To be given over is to lose protection and come under another power’s grasp.
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.The Hebrew verb נתן (natan, give, set, place) appears in “he gave them into the hand.” The phrase opens up the same movement as the present verse: being given over means being placed where another power can rule.
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