What Does 2 Chronicles 21:10 Mean?
So the Edomites broke away from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah broke away at the same time from under his hand, because he had let go of the LORD God of his fathers.
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
So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.THE KEY
The king’s abandonment at the center is mirrored by the territories breaking out from under his hand.
THE MEANING
Edom breaks away from under Judah’s hand, and Libnah does the same; the text ties both departures to the king’s forsaking the LORD, the God of his fathers. What he leaves at the center is mirrored by what no longer stays beneath his hand. Authority here is a bond, not possession secured by grip alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that I can abandon the source of my authority and still retain an unquestioned grip on everything under me.
THE ROOT
עָזַב
ʿazav
GROWS FROM
עזב
ʿazav
To leave, abandon, or relinquish.
“let go of” in this verse is ʿazav. The king’s departure from the LORD is named with a root of leaving. The verse sets that abandonment beside Edom’s and Libnah’s breakaways: what is left at the center echoes in what leaves from beneath his hand.
ALSO GROWS
azuv: Forsaken, abandoned.
עָזוּב
This form names the condition of what has been left; here the verse first names the king as the one who leaves.
azuvah: A forsaken or abandoned one.
עֲזוּבָה
The feminine form makes the result of leaving visible as a state of being left; the verse pairs the king’s abandonment with the territories’ departures.
וַיִּפְשַׁע
wayyifshaʿ
GROWS FROM
פשע
pashaʿ
To break away, rebel, or revolt.
“broke away” in this verse is wayyifshaʿ. Both Edom and Libnah are described with this root, each breaking out from under Judah’s hand. The Hebrew repeats one word for both departures, making the rupture a shared movement rather than two unrelated losses.
ALSO GROWS
peshaʿ: Rebellion, breaking away.
פֶּשַׁע
The noun names the rupture itself, giving the territories’ revolt the shape of a broken bond.
posheaʿ: One who rebels.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This branch names the one who breaks away, placing the focus on the relationship severed from the authority above it.
THE PATTERN
When the bond at the center is abandoned, the bonds held beneath it begin to loosen.
Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus says the LORD, You have loosened your hold on me, and so I have also loosened my hold on you, into the hand of Shishak.And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear and respond to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you let go of him, he will let go of you.But he, perceiving their thoughts, said to them, Every governance split against itself is made a wilderness, and house upon house falls.THE THREAD
And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear and respond to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you let go of him, he will let go of you.The same root, עזב (ʿazav), appears in both verses for forsaking. Here the mirrored action is explicit: the bond abandoned at the center is answered by a bond that no longer holds.
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