What Does 2 Chronicles 18:20 Mean?
Then the breath came out and stood before the LORD, and said, I will coax him. And the LORD said to him, With what?
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
Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith?THE KEY
The spirit’s offer to entice is met with a question about its means, bringing persuasion into view as a method rather than a mystery.
THE MEANING
The verse shows you an intention to entice, followed by the question of how that persuasion will work. The question brings the means into the open before the action unfolds.
THE ROOT
אֲפַתֶּנּוּ
aphatennu
GROWS FROM
פתה
patah
To open or be open; by extension, to persuade, allure, or entice.
“coax” in this verse is aphatennu. The root family links the act of enticing with the simple or inexperienced person who is open to persuasion. The LORD’s “Wherewith?” exposes the route that this influence will take.
ALSO GROWS
peti: A simple or inexperienced person.
פֶּתִי
This related noun names someone susceptible to persuasion, showing the human side of the root’s enticement.
mefatteh: One who entices or persuades.
מְפַתֶּה
This form names the persuader, bringing the agent and the susceptible person into the same root family.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
ruach
Breath, moving air, wind.
“the breath” in this verse is ruach. The Hebrew word rendered “spirit” also names breath and wind: one word spans an unseen presence and moving air. Here it describes a spirit who stands and speaks, while its wider range carries the sense of movement beneath what is seen.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Breath, wind, or spirit.
רוּחַ
This singular form holds together the different senses that English separates into distinct words.
ruchot: Winds or spirits.
רוּחוֹת
The plural preserves the same range, showing that the word can name moving air as well as unseen spirits.
THE PATTERN
Enticement works by presenting a path of persuasion that can be named and examined.
For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
And the breath came forth, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will coax him.This parallel verse uses the same Hebrew root, פתה (patah), rendered “persuade” here and “entice” in 2 Chronicles. The shared word lets both shades sit together: influence that persuades is also influence that entices.
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