What Does 2 Chronicles 18:22 Mean?
Now therefore, behold, the LORD has set a lying breath in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken evil concerning 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
Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.THE KEY
The verse says the LORD actively places deception in prophetic speech and speaks evil against the person addressed.
THE MEANING
Now the verse confronts you with a lying spirit placed by the LORD in prophetic mouths, and with the LORD speaking evil against the one addressed. It presents the deception as an act of divine agency, not an accidental slip by the prophets.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that prophetic authority guarantees truthful speech: here, the LORD places a lying spirit in the prophets’ mouths.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The verb נָתַן (natan, give/set/place) makes the LORD’s action direct: the falsehood is placed in the prophets’ mouths. Its range includes giving as well as setting, so the wording presents deception as something actively given, not as a mistake that simply escapes notice.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Gave, set, or placed.
נָתַן
This is the verb used for the LORD’s act in the verse.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows the root’s range from placing or giving to what is given.
netinah: Giving or placement.
נְתִינָה
This form keeps the act of giving visible in the root behind “put.”
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Breath, wind, or spirit.
רוּחַ (ruach, breath/wind/spirit) is one word that English divides into separate meanings. Here, that same word for breath is placed in the prophets’ mouths: the falsehood has a voice and animating force.
ALSO GROWS
ruchot: Winds or spirits; the plural form of ruach.
רוּחוֹת
The plural preserves the word’s range across moving air and spirit, both meanings held together in the verse’s “lying spirit.”
ruchi: My breath or spirit.
רוּחִי
The possessive form keeps breath and spirit within the same word-family, underscoring how closely the verse binds the spirit to spoken breath.
שֶׁקֶר
sheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
Falsehood or deception; to act falsely.
The phrase רוּחַ שֶׁקֶר (ruach sheqer, spirit of falsehood) binds deception to the force placed in the prophets’ mouths. English “lying” can sound like a passing description, while שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood) names what their speech carries.
ALSO GROWS
shiqer: He lied or acted falsely.
שִׁקֵּר
The verb from this root shows falsehood as an act, matching the verse’s active placement of deception in speech.
sheqarim: Falsehoods or lies; the plural form.
שְׁקָרִים
This plural makes clear that שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood) can name the content carried by speech, not only a speaker’s trait.
THE PATTERN
In judgment, deception itself can be presented as something God sends or places, rather than a mistake outside divine agency.
Now therefore, see, the LORD has set a lying breath in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.And if the prophet is lured and speaks a word, I the LORD have lured that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will wipe him out from the midst of my people Israel.And because of this, God will send them a working of wandering, so that they might lean their weight on the lie.THE THREAD
Now therefore, see, the LORD has set a lying breath in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.The parallel oracle uses רוּחַ (ruach, breath/spirit) with שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood) and repeats that the LORD placed it in the prophets’ mouths. The shared roots keep the action explicit: the LORD sets deception in speech and speaks evil against the person addressed.
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