What Does 2 Chronicles 19:6 Mean?
And he said to the judges, See what you do, for you judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.
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 said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.THE KEY
The verse turns judgment from a verdict made for people into a trust carried in the LORD’s presence.
THE MEANING
When you judge, your decision answers to more than the person before you: the LORD is with you in the judgment. That presence makes careful attention part of the act itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruling is answerable only to the people who see it.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁפְּטוּ
tishpetu
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or govern a case.
“judge” in this verse is tishpetu. The verse uses the same root for the judges, the act of judging, and the judgment itself. What English separates into people, action, and proceeding belongs to one connected work, carried out in the LORD’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is named by the work of deciding; the office and its responsibility are joined.
mishpat: Judgment or justice
מִשְׁפָּט
The judgment is another branch of the same root as the act of judging, so the decision remains bound to the responsibility behind it.
רְאוּ
re'u
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look, or perceive.
The Hebrew says, literally, “see what you are doing.” The instruction begins with perception: the act must be clearly seen before the verse names the judge’s accountability.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: One who sees; a seer
רֹאֶה
This branch keeps the focus on the one who perceives, matching the verse’s call to see the action itself.
mar'eh: Sight or appearance
מַרְאֶה
This branch connects seeing with what is visible, sharpening the call to attend to what is actually being done.
THE PATTERN
Judgment entrusted to human hands remains answerable to God.
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.A Psalm of Asaph. God stands in the assembly of the Mighty One; in the midst of the gods he judges.But why do you judge your brother? And why do you make nothing of your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.“Judgment” here is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat), from the same שפט root as “judge” in 2 Chronicles 19:6. The shared root links impartial hearing with the deeper claim that judgment belongs to God.
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