What Does 2 Kings 23:3 Mean in the King James?
And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the 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 covenant takes shape when the words in the book become a way the whole people walk and guard together.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the words of the book together with the reader’s path, attention, heart, and living soul. Commitment is both inward and shared: the people stand together as those words are carried into life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that possessing sacred words or saying a promise is enough; here, the words take shape in a whole-life walk and shared keeping.
THE ROOT
הָלַךְ
halakh
GROWS FROM
הלך
To go, walk, or move along.
The covenant is expressed as movement in a direction: to walk after the LORD is to let the words shape the path, not only to assent to them. The same root can describe a walker and the act of leading someone along, giving the image both a lived path and a guiding direction.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: One who walks or goes.
הֹלֵךְ
The covenant follower is pictured through continuing movement along a way.
holikh: To lead, bring, or cause to go.
הוֹלִיךְ
This form shows the root can also carry the sense of guiding movement, echoing the verse’s direction of walking after the LORD.
שָׁמַר
shamar
GROWS FROM
שמר
To keep watch, guard, or preserve.
“Keep” carries the image of watchful care: the commands, testimonies, and statutes are held in attention, like something entrusted to a guard. The verse joins that vigilance to the walk, so the covenant is both a path taken and words continually kept.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A keeper, guard, or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper’s attentiveness reveals the active care inside the verse’s call to keep the words.
mishmeret: A guard, charge, or duty to keep watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch presents keeping as an entrusted responsibility, matching the care given to the covenant’s words.
THE PATTERN
The word becomes a lived covenant when it is carried into the path and kept with whole-person attention.
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.The Hebrew phrase translated “taking heed” uses שָׁמַר (shamar), the same root behind “keep” in the covenant. The shared root opens keeping as watchful attention to the word along the way.
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