What Does Judges 2:22 Mean in the King James?
That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
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 test is not whether Israel has a way, but whether it still guards that way by walking it.
THE MEANING
The LORD uses these peoples to test whether Israel guards the LORD’s way and walks in it, as its fathers did. For the reader now, the question is whether a received way remains guarded in actual steps when other paths are present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A way inherited from those before you is not thereby a way you still walk.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַר
shamar
GROWS FROM
שמר
guard, watch over, keep
The verse repeats this root for both whether Israel will keep the way and how the fathers kept it. What passes from one generation to another is not automatic possession: the way remains present as it is watched over.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: guardian, watcher
שֹׁמֵר
The one who keeps the way is pictured as watching over it, making care part of keeping.
mishmeret: charge, watch, duty of guarding
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows keeping as an entrusted responsibility, not merely knowing that a way exists.
נָסָה
nasah
GROWS FROM
נסה
test, try, put to proof
The verse’s נַסּוֹת (nasot, to test or prove) comes from this root. A test brings a condition into view: here, whether keeping the way continues when Israel faces these peoples.
ALSO GROWS
nissah: tested, tried
נִסָּה
This verbal form carries the same idea of a condition being disclosed through a test.
Massah: testing, trial
מַסָּה
The place name Massah comes from this root and preserves the idea of a proving through circumstances.
לָלֶכֶת
lalekhet
GROWS FROM
הלך
go, walk
The verse uses לָלֶכֶת (lalekhet, to walk or go) for what keeping the way looks like in motion. The path is not only something to possess or guard; it is a course actually taken.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: one who goes or walks
הוֹלֵךְ
This branch keeps the root’s sense of movement visible in the person traveling the way.
halikhah: walking, going, manner of walking
הֲלִיכָה
This branch can name both movement itself and the course or manner of that movement.
THE PATTERN
Testing makes visible whether a received path is still being lived.
Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.THE THREAD
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Deuteronomy joins the same roots of way, proving, and keeping, and says the test reveals what is in the heart. Judges places walking beside that same pattern: the path is shown in whether it is still guarded and taken.
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