What Does 2 Chronicles 25:8 Mean?
But if you go, do it, and take firm hold of yourself for the battle. God shall make you fall before the enemy, for God has power to help, and to make stumble.
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
But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for “make thee fall” and “cast down,” revealing that this defeat is a stumbling God can cause.
THE MEANING
You may have strength for the battle and still be brought down before your enemy. The verse places both help and defeat within God’s power, without making your own strength a guarantee of the outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Strength for the battle does not guarantee victory or protect you from being brought low.
THE ROOT
יַכְשִׁילְךָ
yakshilcha
GROWS FROM
כשל
To stumble, totter, or fail; in the causative form, to make someone stumble.
“make stumble” in this verse is yakshilcha. English uses two phrases, “make thee fall” and “cast down,” where Hebrew uses causative forms of one root, כשל (kashal, “stumble” or “cause to stumble”). The verse moves from a specific stumble before the enemy to God’s power to bring someone down through the same image.
ALSO GROWS
nikhshal: One who stumbles, falters, or fails.
נִכְשָׁל
This form focuses on the one who falls, while the causative form in this verse names the one causing the fall.
mikhshol: A stumbling block or obstacle.
מִכְשׁוֹל
The same root names both the act of stumbling and an obstruction that brings it about.
THE PATTERN
The same divine power can bring one low and raise another, so strength and rank do not secure a person’s position.
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
But the LORD is with me like a mighty and fierce warrior; therefore my pursuers shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper; their shame of the ages shall never be forgotten.“Stumble” here also comes from כשל (kashal, “stumble” or “cause to stumble”), the root behind “make thee fall” and “cast down” in Chronicles. In Jeremiah, the persecutors stumble; in Chronicles, the warning says God can bring the fighter down before an enemy.
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