What Does 2 Kings 23:21 Mean in the King James?
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
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 Hebrew says to “do the Passover,” making deliverance a shared act the people enact, not a memory left on a page.
THE MEANING
A shared act keeps deliverance present in the life of a people, anchored to the covenant’s written words. Passover is both remembered release and something the people enact together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Deliverance belongs only to the past and needs no living form.
THE ROOT
עֲשׂוּ
ʿasû
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do, make, or perform.
“keep the Passover” in this verse is ʿasû. The Hebrew pairs עֲשׂוּ, “do,” with פֶּסַח, “Passover”: the people perform the observance together. The wording holds the remembered deliverance in an action shared across the community.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: Deed, act, or work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The same root turns “doing” into an enacted deed, illuminating Passover as shared practice.
ʿasiyyah: Action or doing.
עֲשִׂיָּה
This branch keeps attention on what the people enact, rather than on remembrance as an idea alone.
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
To pass over or spare; the same root names the Passover observance.
“Passover” in this verse is pesaḥ. The name of the observance shares its root with the act of passing over. The word joins the practice to the deliverance it remembers.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: Passed over or spared.
פָּסַח
This is the verb used when the LORD passes over the marked doorway in Exodus 12:23.
pesaḥ: Passover, the observance and its associated sacrifice.
פֶּסַח
The shared root links the communal observance to the act named within its story.
THE PATTERN
A people’s memory of deliverance becomes durable when it is carried in a shared act.
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.The Passover named in this command shares its root with the verb translated “pass over” here. The same word joins the observance to the act of deliverance it remembers.
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