What Does 2 Kings 24:9 Mean in the King James?

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

2 Kings 24:9 · KJV

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 same Hebrew root names both the son’s and the father’s doing, making inherited pattern visible as action.

THE MEANING

Conduct appears here as both personal action and a received pattern: the son does what his father did. The LORD’s sight names that pattern in the deeds as they take shape now.

THE ROOT

וַיַּעַשׂ

wayyaʿas

GROWS FROM

עשה

ʿ-ś-h

to do, make, or bring about

English gives the two actions different tenses, “did” and “had done”, but both come from the Hebrew root ⁨עשה⁩. The son’s conduct takes the form of his father’s pattern: what was handed down becomes something he does.

ALSO GROWS

maʿaseh: deed, work, or action

מַעֲשֶׂה

This noun makes the link between doing and deed explicit: repeated acts become a recognizable pattern.

ʿasah: he did or made

עָשָׂה

This is the same root in the phrase “his father had done,” binding the father’s act and the son’s act in one repeated verb.

THE PATTERN

A life takes visible shape by reproducing the pattern it follows.

And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

Genesis 26:7 · KJVIsaac repeats Abraham’s earlier deception, and the family pattern becomes visible in his own words.

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

1 Kings 15:3 · KJVThe son’s conduct follows the pattern his father has already enacted.

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Ephesians 5:1 · KJVThe image of children following a parent shows how a life takes shape by imitating the one it follows.

THE THREAD

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

1 Kings 15:3 · KJV

The phrase “which he had done” uses the same Hebrew root, ⁨עשה⁩ (ʿasah), as “did” in 2 Kings 24:9. The shared root makes the connection concrete: the son’s pattern is expressed through deeds that repeat the father’s.

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