What Does 2 Chronicles 10:15 Mean?
So the king did not hear and respond to the people, for the turning was from God, that the LORD might make his word stand, which he spoke by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the LORD might perform his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.THE KEY
What the verse calls a “cause” also carries the sense of a turn: the king’s refusal becomes part of the turn through which the spoken word stands.
THE MEANING
When a voice is refused, the refusal does not erase what has been spoken; it can become the turn through which that word takes shape. God’s purpose remains in view, while the refusal itself stays visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that one person’s refusal to listen makes a spoken purpose impossible.
THE ROOT
נְסִבָּה
nesibbah
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
To turn around, go around, or encircle.
“turning” in this verse is nesibbah. Alongside the sense of an occasion or cause, nesibbah carries the shape of a turn. The verse places the king’s refusal inside that turn, where the spoken word can still come to stand.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: Turn, go around.
סָבַב
This verb gives the motion inside nesibbah: events circle into a turn.
saviv: Around, surrounding.
סָבִיב
The same root’s sense of “around” gives the cause the shape of a surrounding turn of events.
לְהָקִים
lehaqim
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise or stand; in a causative form, to make stand or establish.
“make stand” in this verse is lehaqim. Lehaqim pictures the spoken word being brought into standing. The verse’s “perform” links what is spoken with what takes shape.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise, stand.
קוּם
The root’s basic image is standing, which gives “perform” the sense of bringing the word into a standing reality.
maqom: Place, position.
מָקוֹם
This related word for a place suggests what is established comes to occupy a place in what unfolds.
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, and respond.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is shamaʿ. The root holds hearing together with heeding or answering, so “hearkened not” carries a failure of response, not only an absence of sound. Beside the spoken word that still stands, the verse reveals the gap between a closed human response and a purpose that continues.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; respond.
שְׁמַע
The imperative carries hearing toward a response, making the king’s refusal more than simply not receiving sound.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
This noun names what is heard and received, extending the root from listening into the message carried.
THE PATTERN
A spoken purpose can take shape through events that appear to oppose it.
As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it shall be, and as I have counseled, so it shall stand.to do whatever your hand and your counsel had marked out beforehand to be done.THE THREAD
Many plans are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand.“Shall stand” translates תָּקוּם (taqum), from קום (qum), the same root behind “perform” in this verse. Here the word is brought to stand through a turn of events; Proverbs names the durability of the LORD’s counsel.
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