What Does 2 Chronicles 20:10 Mean?
And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not give Israel to enter when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned aside from them and did not destroy them.
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 now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;THE KEY
Coming out of Egypt did not turn deliverance into permission to destroy: the boundary survived the exodus.
THE MEANING
In your present, release from constriction does not make every boundary disappear. The people left untouched remain in view as danger, while the restraint that left them alive remains part of the present truth. The verse holds both realities together without mistaking restraint for weakness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being delivered from one constriction grants entitlement over others.
THE ROOT
נָתַתָּ
natatta
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
Give, set, place.
The Hebrew says God did not give Israel entry against these peoples. What English expresses as “wouldest not let” is a withheld grant: access itself is not given. The verse frames restraint as a boundary, not an accident.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This basic verb is the root beneath “let”: Israel is not given entry.
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
Gift language makes clear that what is given is granted; access and territory are not automatically Israel’s to take.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
tsarar
Bind, constrain, press into narrowness.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The name carries the image of the two narrows: Israel has come out of constriction. Yet release does not dissolve every limit; this verse holds deliverance and restraint together.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, constricted.
צַר
This form gives the narrowness beneath the place name and makes “came out” carry the sense of release from constriction.
meitzar: A narrow place, a strait.
מֵצַר
This related word gives shape to the “narrow places” carried by Mitzrayim.
Mitzrayim: Egypt; read here as the two narrows.
מִצְרַיִם
Israel has already come out of this constriction, but the verse shows that release does not authorize taking these neighboring peoples.
הִשְׁמִידוּם
hishmidum
GROWS FROM
שמד
sh-m-d
Destroy, annihilate.
“destroyed” in this verse is hishmidum. This is a word of destruction, not a softened form of defeat. Its force makes the restraint concrete: Israel did not carry out that destruction.
ALSO GROWS
yashmid: He destroys, wipes out.
יַשְׁמִיד
This form shows the force of the act the verse says Israel did not carry out.
nishmad: Be destroyed, perish.
נִשְׁמַד
The passive form keeps the fate of those peoples in view: the destruction was not done to them.
THE PATTERN
A boundary against taking land or vengeance remains present even when hostility is real.
And the LORD said to me, Do not press the Moabites, nor stir them up in battle. For I will not give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar to the children of Lot as a possession.And when you draw near facing the children of Ammon, do not press them, and do not stir them up. For I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon as a taking, since I have given it to the children of Lot as a taking.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to me, Do not press the Moabites, nor stir them up in battle. For I will not give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar to the children of Lot as a possession.The same root, נתן (natan, “give”), governs both lines: God does not give Israel entry against Moab or a possession from Moab’s land. That shared verb shows that the restraint recalled here is a withheld grant, not simply a battle that never happened.
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