What Does 2 Samuel 22:22 Mean in the King James?
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
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 verse makes faithfulness a guarded path: what you keep in view becomes the way you walk.
THE MEANING
In you, belonging to God takes the shape of a direction held in view and walked out. The LORD’s way is not merely an idea you endorse; it becomes real in the course you tread, while turning from God carries the weight of wrongdoing against that bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that closeness to God is only an inward label, separate from the direction of your life.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַרְתִּי
shāmartî
GROWS FROM
שמר
guard, watch over, preserve
The word translated “kept” carries the sense of guarding and watching. The LORD’s way is held in view through sustained attention; faithfulness here is active watchfulness.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: watchman, guardian
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman shows the attentive, protective quality carried by “kept.”
mishmeret: charge, guard duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch makes keeping a continuing responsibility, not a momentary glance.
דַּרְכֵי
darkhê
GROWS FROM
דרך
tread, travel; the path formed by walking
The “ways” are paths made real by treading them. Paired with “kept,” the verse joins watchfulness to movement: the guarded way is also the course a life walks.
ALSO GROWS
derek: way, path, road
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the path the verse says is kept.
darak: to tread, step, travel
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals how a way becomes lived: by being trodden.
רָשַׁעְתִּי
rāšaʿtî
GROWS FROM
רשע
act wickedly, be guilty
“wickedly departed” in this verse is rāšaʿtî. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of acting wrongly or being guilty. The phrase’s separation from God is therefore framed as a breach in relationship, not mere distance.
ALSO GROWS
rasha: wicked person, guilty person
רָשָׁע
This branch names the person in terms of wrongdoing or guilt.
resha: wickedness, guilt
רֶשַׁע
This noun makes explicit the wrongdoing carried in the verse’s phrase.
THE PATTERN
Faithfulness is a path held by attention and made visible in the way a person walks.
Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The same root, שׁמר, appears here as “preserve”: the speaker guards the LORD’s way, and the LORD guards the person. One verb links the watched path with the life moving through it.
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