What Does 2 Chronicles 28:14 Mean?
So the armed men let go of the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly.
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 armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.THE KEY
The armed men’s grip ends in public: both the captives and the spoil are laid before the rulers and the whole assembly.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps the aftermath of force in full view: captured people and seized goods stand together before the leaders and the gathered community. Their custody changes hands, but the people are still named as captives; this verse does not yet say that their captivity has ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the assumption that victory makes captives and plunder the soldiers’ private possession: both are presented before the rulers and the whole assembly.
THE ROOT
עָזְבוּ
ʿazvu
GROWS FROM
עזב
To leave, abandon, or relinquish.
“let go of” in this verse is ʿazvu. English “left” can sound like abandonment, while the placement before the rulers and assembly makes the relinquishing visible. The root can carry the sharper sense of forsaking, so the verse holds the edge of separation without yet saying the captives are free.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazav: To leave or abandon.
עָזַב
This is the verb behind “left”; here it marks the armed men’s withdrawal from holding the captives and spoil themselves.
ʿazuvah: Forsaken; abandoned.
עֲזוּבָה
This form shows how strongly the same root can carry the sense of being left behind, a possibility still present in the word “left.”
הַשְּׁבִי
ha-shevi
GROWS FROM
שׁבה
To take captive.
The word for the captives grows from the verb “to take captive,” so the people remain linguistically marked by the act that seized them. The verse brings that condition into public view but does not yet call it freedom.
ALSO GROWS
shavah: To take captive.
שָׁבָה
The root verb names the act that makes someone a captive, keeping the seizure present inside the noun.
shavui: A captive; one taken.
שָׁבוּי
This related form makes explicit that captivity describes a person through what has been done to them.
הַבִּזָּה
ha-bizzah
GROWS FROM
בזז
To plunder or take as booty.
The word for “spoil” carries the act of plundering within it. Set beside the captives, it shows people and goods both arriving as the results of seizure, and both being placed before the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
bazaz: To plunder; seize as booty.
בָּזַז
This verb names the taking that lies behind the goods called spoil.
bizzah: Plunder; goods taken as spoil.
בִּזָּה
This noun is the plunder itself, now laid before the rulers and congregation.
THE PATTERN
Captured lives and seized goods become a matter for the whole community when they are placed before shared authority.
And they brought the captives, the prey, and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab, which is beside the Jordan near Jericho.For who will hear and respond to you in this matter? But as is the portion of the one who goes down into the battle, so is the portion of the one who sits by the vessels of war; together they shall divide alike.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
And the men who were marked by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all who stumbled among them upon donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren. Then they returned to Samaria.The word for “captives” is שְׁבִי (shevi) in both verses, keeping the act of capture in view. Verse 14 shows the handover; the next verse follows those same people into clothing, food, and return to their kin.
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