What Does 2 Chronicles 13:4 Mean?
And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear and respond to me, Jeroboam, and all Israel;
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 Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel;THE KEY
A dispute between rulers becomes a summons to the whole people: all Israel is called to hear.
THE MEANING
A voice takes its stand amid division and addresses both a rival ruler and an entire people. The call to hear makes each person part of what is being said, before anyone responds to it.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, attend; hearing can carry the sense of receiving and responding.
“Hear and respond to me” in this verse is shamaʿ. The Hebrew call here is plural: Abijah addresses Jeroboam and all Israel together. The root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) makes the moment larger than sound reaching an ear: the whole people is summoned into receiving the claim.
ALSO GROWS
shemuah: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both hearing and what is heard, linking the people’s reception to the message they are being asked to take in.
shomea: One who hears; a hearer.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The call places the whole audience in the role of hearers, making their attention part of the scene.
THE PATTERN
A call to hear places its audience inside the word being spoken and calls for a response.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Hear and respond, O heavens, and bend your ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken. I have raised children and lifted them high, and they have broken away from me.And he said, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Both verses begin with שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) and address Israel. Here the summons reaches Jeroboam and all Israel; in Deuteronomy, it opens with Israel as the hearer of a declaration about the LORD.
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