What Does 2 Chronicles 15:2 Mean?
And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear and respond to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you let go of him, he will let go of you.
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 he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.THE KEY
The verse describes presence as a shared relation: nearness meets nearness, seeking opens into encounter, and abandonment meets abandonment.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s presence meets the reader in relationship: he is with you as you are with him. Seeking opens into being found, while abandonment meets abandonment. The verse holds mutual presence and mutual withdrawal together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine presence is a possession untouched by relationship: this verse describes a bond that can be sought and met, or abandoned.
THE ROOT
תִּדְרְשֻׁהוּ
tidreshuhu
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־שׁ
d-r-sh
to seek, inquire, or pursue
“seek” in this verse is tidreshuhu. This root gives seeking the feel of active inquiry and pursuit, rather than a passing wish. The promise that he will be found answers that movement with an encounter.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: inquiry, study, interpretation
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch preserves the searching quality of the root: seeking involves attention and inquiry.
derishah: inquiry, search
דְּרִישָׁה
This related form makes clear that seeking is an active pursuit, the movement named in the verse.
תַּעַזְבֻּהוּ
taʿazvuhu
GROWS FROM
ע־ז־ב
ʿ-z-b
to leave, abandon, or relinquish
“let go of” in this verse is taʿazvuhu. The same root carries both clauses: you abandon the LORD, and the LORD abandons you. The warning describes a real leaving on both sides, with the same verb turned back across the relationship.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazuv: abandoned, left behind
עָזוּב
This form names the condition that follows when someone or something has been left.
ʿazivah: leaving, abandonment
עֲזִיבָה
This noun keeps the focus on departure itself, the rupture the verse repeats in both directions.
שִׁמְעוּנִי
shimʿuni
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, listen, and receive
“Hear and respond to me” in this verse is shimʿuni. The verse opens by calling the reader to hear, then describes what that hearing means in relationship. Here hearing includes a response: the words that follow spell out what remaining with, seeking, and abandoning look like.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear, listen, respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar imperative carries hearing toward response, matching the relational weight of the warning.
shemuʿah: report, news, something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows the same root in what is received by hearing.
THE PATTERN
Seeking the LORD is met by finding him; presence is encountered through an active relation.
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.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.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.This verse uses the same Hebrew roots for “seek” and “find.” Their shared movement opens “he will be found of you” as an encounter following active seeking, while the present verse also names what happens when that relationship is abandoned.
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