What Does 2 Kings 21:3 Mean in the King James?
For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
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
What is bowed to becomes what is served: the verse joins worship’s posture to allegiance’s labor.
THE MEANING
The verse shows allegiance taking visible shape: the body bows before the host of heaven, and service follows. Rebuilt places of devotion become sites where both reverence and labor are directed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that worship is only an inward feeling: here, the bow and the service are joined as one lived allegiance.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ
vayyishtachū
GROWS FROM
שחה
sh-ḥ-h
To bow down or prostrate oneself.
“worshipped” in this verse is vayyishtachū. The Hebrew verb pictures a body lowering itself. Read beside עבד, the sequence brings outward posture and continuing service into one account of allegiance.
ALSO GROWS
hishtachavah: To bow oneself down.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This related form makes the bodily posture explicit beneath the English word “worship.”
mishtachavim: Those bowing down.
מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים
The participle names people by the posture they take, making visible what the verse describes.
וַיַּעֲבֹד
vayyaʿavod
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, labor, or serve.
English can make service sound like a religious gesture, but עבד holds work and service together. The verse shows allegiance extending beyond the bow into the labor given to what is served.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: A servant.
עֶבֶד
The servant is named by the same root as the service rendered, joining a person’s role to the work they do.
ʿavodah: Work or service, including service to a deity.
עֲבֹדָה
The same word family can name ordinary labor and religious service, revealing how devotion takes shape in a life’s work.
THE PATTERN
Reverence becomes allegiance through the one to whom the bow is given and the service is rendered.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?THE THREAD
With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:This verse uses the same Hebrew roots for bowing down (שחה, shachah) and serving (עבד, ʿavad). It names the two acts together, making clear how the posture of reverence extends into the service rendered.
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