What Does 2 Chronicles 23:14 Mean?
Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of the hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Bring her out from between the ranks, and whoever follows her, let him be put to death by the sword. For the priest said, Do not put her to death in the house of the LORD.
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 Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the ranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword. For the priest said, Slay her not in the house of the LORD.THE KEY
The priest does not forbid her killing; he orders her brought beyond the LORD’s house before it happens.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a brutal boundary in view: the order for her death remains, but it must not be carried out inside the LORD’s house. Anyone who follows her is also ordered to die by the sword. The boundary governs where the violence occurs, not whether it occurs.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred boundary does not guarantee the condemned person’s safety; it can keep violence out of the sanctuary while leaving the killing in force.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיאוּהָ
hôṣîʾûhā
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ṣ-ʾ
To go out or come forth; in the causative form, to bring someone or something out.
“brought out” in this verse is hôṣîʾûhā. יָצָא (yāṣāʾ, go out or come forth) describes going out, while הוֹצִיא (hôṣîʾ, bring out) makes someone else cause that movement. Here הוֹצִיאוּהָ (hôṣîʾûhā, bring her out) names a forced crossing of a boundary that relocates the violence rather than ending it.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: Go out; come forth.
יָצָא
This is the basic movement beneath the command: crossing from inside to outside.
hôṣîʾ: Bring out; cause to go out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form shows that the men are ordered to move her across the boundary.
môṣāʾ: Going forth; what proceeds out; an outlet.
מוֹצָא
The same root can describe what comes out from a source, keeping the image of outward movement.
הָמֵת
hāmet
GROWS FROM
מ־ו־ת
m-w-t
To die; in the causative form, to cause death or put to death.
“put to death” in this verse is hāmet. The Hebrew uses the same מוּת (mût, die) root in the order concerning the follower, הָמֵת (hāmet, kill), and the prohibition concerning her, תְּמִיתוּהָ (temîtûhā, kill her). English renders one as “let him be slain” and the other as “slay her not,” while the Hebrew keeps both on the same death-root: the distinction is about target and place.
ALSO GROWS
mût: To die.
מוּת
This is the verbal root behind both the order to kill and the prohibition against killing her inside the house.
māwet: Death.
מָוֶת
The noun makes explicit the outcome that the commands in this verse arrange and restrict.
hēmît: Cause to die; put to death.
הֵמִית
This causative branch names the act commanded for the follower and forbidden for her within the sanctuary.
THE PATTERN
A sacred boundary can determine where lethal violence occurs without stopping it.
But if a man comes boiling upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile, you take him from my altar, that he may die.Bring out the one who cursed, outside the camp, and let all who heard him lean their hands upon his head, and let all the assembly stone him.And the whole city was moved, and the people ran together, and they seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple, and straightway the doors were shut. As they sought to kill him, a report went up to the commander of a thousand, that all Jerusalem was poured into confusion.THE THREAD
Bring out the one who cursed, outside the camp, and let all who heard him lean their hands upon his head, and let all the assembly stone him.“Bring forth” in Leviticus and “brought out” here use the same root, י־צ־א (y-ṣ-ʾ, go out or bring out). Both place movement beyond a sacred boundary before the text names the killing that follows.
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