What Does Haggai 1:5 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
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’s “consider” is the embodied act of setting your heart upon the path your steps are making.
THE MEANING
The LORD of hosts meets you with a direct call to place your heart on the course your life is taking. Your actual way, made visible in repeated choices, can be brought into view now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sincere intentions make it unnecessary to examine the direction of your choices.
THE ROOT
שִׂימוּ
simu
GROWS FROM
שׂים
sim
To put, place, or set.
“Consider” in this verse is simu. The Hebrew verb means “set” or “place” in the phrase “set your heart upon your ways.” Consideration here is directed attention: the inner self is placed upon the course being taken.
ALSO GROWS
sim: To put, set, or place.
שִׂים
This basic action gives “consider” the sense of deliberately placing attention.
vayyasem: And he put or placed.
וַיָּשֶׂם
This form carries the same concrete action of placing something in a particular position.
לְבַבְכֶם
levavkhem
GROWS FROM
לבב
levav
The inner self: the center of thought, desire, and intention.
The heart is more than feeling; it is the inner center that attends, chooses, and intends. Set upon your ways, it brings your desires and decisions into the examination too.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart; the inner person.
לֵב
It names the inward center the verse directs toward the path.
levav: Heart; inner self.
לְבָב
This fuller form is the word used in the verse’s call to set the heart upon one’s ways.
דַּרְכֵיכֶם
darkheikhem
GROWS FROM
דָּרַךְ
darakh
To tread or step.
“ways” in this verse is darkheikhem. The word for a “way” grows from the verb “to tread”: a way is a track made and traveled. The course of your life becomes visible in where your steps repeatedly go.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: Way, path, or manner.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the singular word behind “ways,” naming the course a person travels.
darakh: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb makes the path concrete: it is formed by the steps that travel it.
THE PATTERN
A life’s direction becomes clear when it is examined by the steps it actually takes.
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.THE THREAD
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.Both verses use forms of דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, way or path) for the course being examined. The psalm shows what happens when that path comes into view: attention reaches the feet, and the next steps turn.
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