What Does 2 Chronicles 25:15 Mean?
And the burning of the LORD's anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not snatch their own people out of your hand?
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
Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?THE KEY
The irony sits in Amaziah’s name: the man named for Yahweh’s strength seeks gods that cannot pull their own people out of his hand.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks wherever a person treats power as trustworthy because it is sought or feared: its capacity is measured by whom it can free from a grip. Amaziah’s name is commonly understood as “Yahweh strengthens,” yet he seeks gods whose own people could not be delivered; the LORD’s burning anger meets him through a prophet sent to speak. The verse holds the contrast between power invoked and actual release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that seeking a power proves it has power: these gods cannot free their own people from another’s hand.
THE ROOT
הִצִּילוּ
hitsilu
GROWS FROM
נצל
n-ts-l
To snatch away or pull free; in this verb form, to rescue or deliver.
“snatch” in this verse is hitsilu. The verse’s “deliver” carries the image of pulling someone out of danger or another’s grasp. The gods Amaziah seeks cannot pull their own people clear of his hand.
ALSO GROWS
natsal: To snatch away or rescue.
נָצַל
This basic action makes the verse’s test concrete: can these gods pull anyone free?
matsil: One who rescues; a deliverer.
מַצִּיל
This names the agent of rescue and sharpens the absence of that power in the gods Amaziah seeks.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or stretch out the hand.
The prophet is sent to name the grip from which the gods cannot release their own people. The root holds sending forth and release within the same word-family.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send or send forth.
שָׁלַח
This is the action in the verse: a prophet is sent directly to Amaziah.
shilleach: To send away, let go, or release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This form brings the root’s releasing sense into view beside the gods’ failure to free their people.
אֲמַצְיָהוּ
Amatsyahu
GROWS FROM
אמץ
ʾ-m-ṣ
To be strong or to strengthen.
Amaziah’s name carries the root for strength together with Yahû and is commonly understood as “Yahweh strengthens.” The contrast is compressed into the address itself: one bearing that name seeks deities that cannot rescue their own people.
ALSO GROWS
immets: Strengthened.
אִמֵּץ
This verb form brings the strengthening carried in the name into focus.
ammits: Strong or mighty.
אַמִּיץ
This adjective echoes the strength in Amaziah’s name against the gods’ inability to act.
THE PATTERN
A claimed power is exposed by whether it can release the people who depend on it.
But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them rise, if they can deliver you in the time of your harm. For as many as your cities are your gods, Judah.They have hands, but they do not touch; they have feet, but they do not walk; nor do they murmur in their throats.Therefore he is also able to deliver to the very end those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to plead for them.THE THREAD
He snatches me from my strong enemy and from my haters, for they are too firm for me.Both verses use נצל (natsal), the root of pulling someone out of danger or another’s grasp. Here the people’s gods fail to pull their own people free; in the psalm, the LORD does what those gods cannot.
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