What Does 2 Chronicles 20:13 Mean?
And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
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 all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.THE KEY
Judah, whose name is bound to praise, stands before the LORD with its whole household, including those too young to speak for themselves.
THE MEANING
Judah stands before the LORD as a whole community, with little ones, wives, and children present. This gathering includes those with little power to act or speak; they belong within the people’s shared presence before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that standing before God belongs only to those with public agency: the little ones and the household are present in Judah’s stance.
THE ROOT
עֹמְדִים
ʿomdîm
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
Stand, remain, take one’s stand.
English “stood” can sound like a momentary posture, while עמד also carries the sense of remaining or taking one’s stand. Here the stance is shared: the young and dependent are present within Judah’s standing before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand, remain, or take one’s stand.
עָמַד
This verb shares all three root consonants and shows that standing can describe a continuing position, not only a physical pose.
maʿămād: A standing place, station, or position.
מַעֲמָד
This noun shares the root consonants and lets “stood” open into the place a person or people occupy.
THE PATTERN
A people’s presence before God includes the whole gathering, even those with the least power to act or speak.
Gather the people, set apart the assembly, gather the elders, gather the infants and those who suckle at the breast. Let the groom go out from his inner room, and the bride from her canopy.At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.But when Jesus saw it, he was vexed, and said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not hold them back, for the governance of God belongs to such as these.THE THREAD
Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.The same root עמד (ʿ-m-d, “stand” or “remain”) appears in “before whom I stand.” In both verses, standing before the LORD is a position of presence; 2 Chronicles widens that stance from one speaker to a gathered people and their households.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us