What Does 2 Chronicles 15:12 Mean?
And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their living soul.
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 entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;THE KEY
This covenant makes seeking the LORD a shared commitment of the whole living self, not a passing intention.
THE MEANING
The verse names your seeking as something that can gather your whole self: your heart and your living soul. It presents that search as a shared commitment, an orientation of life rather than a passing impulse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that seeking the LORD is only a private feeling or an occasional question; the verse depicts it as a whole-self commitment shared in covenant.
THE ROOT
לִדְרֹשׁ
lidrosh to seek
GROWS FROM
דרש
d-r-sh
To seek out, inquire, or search.
“seek” in this verse is lidrosh to seek. The Hebrew word for seeking also grows into words for inquiry and study. Seeking here carries the shape of active pursuit, not just inward longing.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: Inquiry or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch shows seeking as a search that examines and draws understanding.
doresh: One who seeks or inquires
דּוֹרֵשׁ
The same root can name the seeker, making the act a sustained orientation rather than a single wish.
נַפְשָׁם
nafsham their living
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self, the person in the fullness of life.
“living soul” in this verse is nafsham their living. Nefesh names a living person, not a detachable inner part. Joined with heart, it gathers the person’s inward center and lived self into the search.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul, self, or person
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word translated “soul” here, carrying the sense of the living person who seeks.
naphash: To be refreshed or recover
נָפַשׁ
This related verb connects the living self with renewal, showing nefesh as life in its lived condition.
לְבָבָם
levavam their heart
GROWS FROM
לבב
l-b-b
The inner center of thought, intention, and will.
The heart in this phrase is more than emotion; it is the center from which a person understands and intends. With nefesh, the verse describes the whole person turned toward seeking.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart, inner center
לֵב
This shorter form shares the root and makes clear that the word reaches beyond feeling to inward thought and intention.
levav: Heart, inner center
לֵבָב
This fuller form appears in the verse and places the search at the center of the person.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays seeking the LORD as an active, whole-person search oriented toward finding.
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your living soul.And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.That they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.THE THREAD
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your living soul.Both verses use דרש (darash, seek) beside heart and nefesh, the living soul. Deuteronomy names the same whole-self search and says it finds; this verse gives that search the form of a shared covenant.
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