What Does 2 Kings 21:7 Mean in the King James?
And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
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
Hebrew uses the same verb for both acts: Manasseh sets an image in the house where the LORD says he will put his name.
THE MEANING
A chosen space can still hold a rival image: what is deliberately placed inside it can contradict the name it bears. The carved image stands within the house where the LORD says he will put his name forever, and the verse keeps both realities in view at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being chosen does not make a place incapable of contradiction or profanation.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשֶׂם
wayyāśem
GROWS FROM
שׂים
to place, set, put
“set / put” in this verse is wayyāśem. The same root governs the king’s placement and the LORD’s promised placement: a carved image is set where the LORD’s שְׁמִי (shemí, “my name”, his nature) is to be put. English uses “set” and “put” for one repeated action, sharpening the conflict between two presences in one house.
ALSO GROWS
wayyāśem: he set, he placed
וַיָּשֶׂם
This is the verse’s verb for Manasseh installing the image, from the root שׂים.
ʾāśīm: I will put, I will place
אָשִׂים
The LORD’s promise in the same verse uses the same root, so the English shift from “set” to “put” conceals one repeated action.
THE PATTERN
A place becomes a site of encounter when the divine name is placed there, and an image inside it exposes what that claim contends with.
But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.The Hebrew uses the same placement root, שׂים, and repeats the promise to put the LORD’s name in the house forever. Beside that pledge, Manasseh’s image is placed in the very dwelling the LORD claims for his name.
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