What Does 2 Chronicles 28:15 Mean?
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.
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
And the men which were expressed 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 the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.THE KEY
The men named by name make their nature visible in action: they turn the spoils of violence into embodied care that carries the vulnerable back to kin.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now: restoration reaches the whole person by covering exposure, answering hunger and thirst, tending the body, and carrying weakness toward kin. Need is not reduced to one condition; clothing, nourishment, touch, transport, and belonging all matter. Here, care becomes visible in what the vulnerable receive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release alone is enough, or that the weak must reach safety by their own strength.
THE ROOT
וַיְנַהֲלוּם
wayenahalum
GROWS FROM
נהל
To lead, guide, or conduct.
The Hebrew verb rendered “carried” can also mean to lead or guide. The feeble are not simply moved from danger; they are conducted toward their brethren, in the same language used for a shepherd’s care and for guidance toward a place of rest.
ALSO GROWS
yenahaleni: “He leads me” (Psalm 23:2).
יְנַהֲלֵנִי
The same root describes being led beside still waters, opening the transport of the feeble as tender guidance toward replenishment.
nahalta: “You guided” (Exodus 15:13).
נָהַלְתָּ
The root also describes guidance toward a dwelling place, echoing this verse’s movement toward the captives’ brethren.
כּוֹשֵׁל
koshel
GROWS FROM
כשל
To stumble, stagger, or fall.
“who stumbled” in this verse is koshel. The word translated “feeble” pictures someone who stumbles or totters, not only someone lacking strength in the abstract. The verse answers faltering footing with a ride: another bears the journey when a person cannot keep their step.
ALSO GROWS
kāshal: “Stumble,” “stagger,” or “fall.”
כָּשַׁל
This verb names the failing step concealed beneath the broader English word “feeble.”
mikhshol: “Stumbling block” or “obstacle” (Leviticus 19:14).
מִכְשׁוֹל
The related noun shows the root can name what makes a person fall; here the response is to carry those at risk of falling.
הִלְבִּישׁוּם
hilbishum
GROWS FROM
לבש
To wear or clothe.
The verse repeats the clothing action: the naked are clothed from the spoil, and they clothe them. War’s captured goods become literal covering, turning exposure into protection through the hands of others.
ALSO GROWS
lābash: “Wear” or “put on.”
לָבַשׁ
Job 29:14 uses this root for putting on righteousness, showing how clothing language can also express what becomes visible in a person’s conduct.
malbush: “Garment” or “clothing” (Job 27:16).
מַלְבּוּשׁ
The noun names the material covering itself; in this verse that covering is a concrete answer to nakedness.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes visible when material provision meets bodily vulnerability and brings people toward safety and belonging.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.And he came near to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and lifted him onto his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and tended him.Naked, and you clothed me; I was weak, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.THE THREAD
He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.“Carried” in this verse comes from the same root as “he leadeth” beside still waters. The vulnerable are guided toward their brethren with the care of someone being led toward rest.
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