What Does Judges 2:2 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
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 Hebrew says not merely “make no league” but “cut no covenant”, and names obedience as hearing that becomes action.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a concrete and severe demand: make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and tear down their altars. It names the failure as not hearing the voice, then asks why the command remains unmet. The gap between the spoken demand and the response stands open in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing the voice counts as faithfulness even when the response it names is withheld.
THE ROOT
תִכְרְתוּ
tikretu
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut, cut off, sever.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “cut a covenant,” where the KJV says “make a league.” The verse describes allegiance as a concrete act of binding, and forbids that bond while commanding the altars to be torn down.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This is the phrase behind “make no league”; the agreement is named with the action of cutting.
nikhrat: Be cut off, severed.
נִכְרַת
The same root can name severance, bringing the verse’s forbidden bond into sharper relief.
שְׁמַעְתֶּם
shemaʿtem
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
The Hebrew says “you have not heard my voice,” using the root translated here as “obeyed.” Hearing in this word reaches beyond receiving sound: the voice is heeded through the response that follows.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
The familiar call “Hear, O Israel” uses this root, showing that hearing can name a whole response, not just a sound reaching the ear.
shemuʿah: A report, news, or thing heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This related word names what is received by hearing; Judges makes the failure a failure to heed the voice.
THE PATTERN
A command is heard in the response it names.
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Judges says “you have not heard” using שמע (shamaʿ), the same root behind Samuel’s “obeying” and “hearken.” The shared root makes the connection concrete: offerings cannot stand in for a response to the voice.
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