What Does 2 Chronicles 10:7 Mean?
And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to this people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants all the days.
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
And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.THE KEY
The counsel treats kindness and speech as one act: goodness becomes audible in the words people receive.
THE MEANING
This verse names a living pattern of authority: people remain in service when they are treated well, considered, and spoken to with goodness. The words offered are part of the relationship itself; their goodness is how authority reaches the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that lasting service must be secured through fear: here, service follows care and good words.
THE ROOT
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
good, beneficial
The same Hebrew root describes the king as “kind” and the “good” in his words. Goodness is not left as an inner quality; it is heard in what reaches the people.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: goodness; benefit
טוֹבָה
This noun shows that the goodness named in the king’s character can also be understood as something received.
tovim: good; beneficial (masculine plural)
טוֹבִים
This is the form used for the “good words,” carrying the same root from the king’s manner into his speech.
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
word, matter, thing
The verb translated “spake” and the noun translated “words” come from one root. The verse binds the act of speaking to the words offered, so goodness is carried in the speech itself.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word; matter or thing
דָּבָר
The words offered to the people are the same kind of concrete matter named by this root.
dibber: to speak
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root with “words,” joining what is spoken to the words that people hear.
עֲבָדִים
avadim
GROWS FROM
עבד
work, serve
“servant” in this verse is avadim. The promised outcome is service, a word-family that also names work and service itself. The relationship is pictured in the concrete language of ongoing labor, not merely warm feeling.
ALSO GROWS
eved: servant; worker
עֶבֶד
This singular form names the person who serves, making the verse’s promised outcome tangible.
avodah: work; service
עֲבוֹדָה
This branch shows that service describes active work, giving the promise of serving “all the days” an ongoing, practical shape.
THE PATTERN
Careful speech is one way goodness becomes tangible in a relationship.
A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but whatever is good for building up where there is need, that it may give favor to those who hear.Not giving back evil for evil, or insult for insult, but on the contrary, speaking good, knowing that you are called to this, so that you may inherit good speech.THE THREAD
A man has joy in the answer of his mouth, and a word in its season, how good it is!The roots for “word” and “good” meet again in this verse. Here, good speech is shown as a good thing in itself, especially when it arrives at the right time.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us