What Does Judges 2:10 Mean in the King James?

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Judges 2:10 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

A faith story can pass from one generation to another while knowledge of the LORD fails to pass with it.

THE MEANING

A generation can arise without knowing the LORD or recognizing the works he has done. The verse speaks now wherever inherited stories remain while living recognition of the LORD and his work is absent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that religious memory or family inheritance automatically means the LORD is known.

THE ROOT

יָדַע

yādaʿ

GROWS FROM

י־ד־ע

y-d-ʿ

To know, recognize, or perceive through lived acquaintance.

“knew” in this verse is yādaʿ. This root can reach beyond possessing facts to recognizing through lived contact. The verse pairs not knowing the LORD with not knowing what he has done, showing a break in recognition of both the LORD and his works.

ALSO GROWS

daʿat: Knowledge, perception.

דַּעַת

This noun carries the same root into the knowledge itself, making the verse’s absence a rupture in recognition, not merely a missing report.

yōdēaʿ: One who knows or perceives.

יוֹדֵעַ

The root also names an active knower, underscoring that knowing the LORD is a living relation rather than a label inherited from others.

THE PATTERN

Knowledge of the LORD is not automatic inheritance; it is remembered, declared, and personally known.

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

Deuteronomy 4:9 · KJVIt joins remembering what has been seen with teaching it to descendants, so knowledge can cross a generational break.

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

Psalm 78:6 · KJVIt names the next generation as people who are to know and retell the works, the opposite of the rupture described in Judges.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

John 17:3 · KJVIt presents knowing God as the substance of life, making that knowledge personal rather than a family label.

THE THREAD

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 31:34 · KJV

Both verses use yādaʿ (⁨יָדַע⁩), “to know or recognize.” Judges names a generation in whom this knowing is absent; Jeremiah pictures a community where all, from least to greatest, know the LORD.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us