What Does 2 Chronicles 20:2 Mean?
Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude comes against you from beyond the sea, on this side of Aram; and behold, they are in Hazazontamar, Engedi.
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 some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “told” shares its root with “before” and “in front of”: the threat reaches Jehoshaphat first as something set before him.
THE MEANING
A crisis becomes present when it is reported: its size, direction, and location enter your awareness before its outcome does. Jehoshaphat’s name means “YHWH judges,” so judgment is already carried in the name of the one receiving the alarm.
THE ROOT
וַיַּגִּידוּ
vayaggidu
GROWS FROM
נגד
To make known or declare; related forms also carry the sense of what is in front or opposite.
Vayaggidu (וַיַּגִּידוּ, “they told”) comes from נגד (nagad, “make known, declare”); the same word family includes neged (נֶגֶד, “before, in front of, opposite”). The report sets the approaching threat before the king’s awareness, before its outcome is known.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: To tell, declare, make known.
הִגִּיד
This is the report verb itself: the message brings the threat into view.
neged: Before, in front of, opposite.
נֶגֶד
This related form links disclosure with placing something before another’s attention.
nagid: Leader, ruler.
נָגִיד
This related word for a leader carries the sense of one who stands prominent or at the front.
הָמוֹן
hamon
GROWS FROM
המה
To roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound; the related noun can mean tumult, crowd, or abundance.
The “great multitude” is named with hamon, a word that can hold both a crowd and its tumultuous noise. The root lets the threat be heard as well as counted.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To roar, murmur, or surge in tumult.
הָמָה
The verb makes audible the uproar held inside the word for the multitude.
hamon: Tumult, crowd, multitude, abundance.
הָמוֹן
In “great multitude,” the word carries both the force of numbers and the pressure of a swelling crowd.
יְהוֹשָׁפָט
Yehoshaphat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, govern, or render a decision.
“Jehoshaphat” in this verse is Yehoshaphat. Yehoshaphat (יְהוֹשָׁפָט, “YHWH judges”) joins the divine name with shaphat (שָׁפַט, “judge, govern”). Judgment is already carried in the name of the person who hears the report.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge, govern, render a decision.
שָׁפַט
This verb supplies the action compressed into Jehoshaphat’s name.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, a decision or case.
מִשְׁפָּט
This noun shows the root’s reach from the act of judging to the judgment itself.
THE PATTERN
A report of danger makes an approaching crisis present before its outcome is known.
And he heard it said concerning Tirhakah, king of Cush, Behold, he has come out to fight against you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be startled, for such things must come to be; but the end is not yet.THE THREAD
O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no strength against this great multitude that comes against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.The phrase הָמוֹן רָב (hamon rav, “great multitude”) returns verbatim in the prayer: it is the same word for the force reported here. What arrives as a threat is spoken back in the next verse as the thing Jehoshaphat brings before God.
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