What Does 2 Chronicles 20:33 Mean?

Only the high places were not turned aside, for the people had not yet set firm their hearts toward the God of their fathers.

2 Chronicles 20:33 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.

THE KEY

The high places remain where the heart has not been made firm toward God: “prepared” carries the force of established.

THE MEANING

Where your heart is not yet established toward God, the high places remain standing. The verse traces what stays visible to an inward direction that has not yet become settled.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that outward reform can be complete while the heart remains unset toward God.

THE ROOT

הֵכִינוּ

hekhinu

GROWS FROM

כון

To be firm or established; in a causative form, to establish or make ready.

“set firm” in this verse is hekhinu. The word translated “prepared” carries the sense of making the heart firm toward God. The verse ties the high places that remain standing to a heart that has not yet been established in that direction.

ALSO GROWS

kun: To be firm or established.

כּוּן

The basic verb gives “prepared” its sense of becoming established, beyond simply planning or getting ready.

nakhon: Firm, established, set.

נָכוֹן

Psalm 78:8 uses this form of the same root for a heart that is not steadfast with God, echoing the unsettled heart in this verse.

hekhīn: To prepare, establish, make ready.

הֵכִין

This is the verb form behind ⁨הֵכִינוּ⁩, “they prepared,” showing that the heart is the thing being established toward God.

THE PATTERN

What remains in outward life follows the direction in which the heart is established.

And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you turn back to the LORD with all your hearts, then turn aside the foreign gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and set your hearts firm toward the LORD, and serve him alone; and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 7:3 · SDVThe heart is set toward the LORD as the strange gods are put away, linking inward direction with what remains outwardly.

My heart is set firm, O God, my heart is set firm. I sing and pluck the strings.

Psalm 57:7 · SDVA heart made firm toward God becomes visible in the praise that follows.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21 · SDVWhat you hold as treasure reveals where your heart is set, making inward attachment visible in your priorities.

THE THREAD

And might not be like their fathers, a generation that turns aside and resists; a generation that did not set its heart firm, and whose breath was not steady with God.

Psalm 78:8 · SDV

“Set not their heart aright” uses ⁨נָכוֹן⁩ (nakhon), from the same root ⁨כון⁩ (kun) as “prepared” here. The shared root shows that preparing the heart is establishing it with God, placing the unremoved high places alongside that unsettled inner state.

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