What Does 2 Chronicles 28:22 Mean?
And in the time he was pressed did he trespass yet more against the LORD. This is that king Ahaz.
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 in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.THE KEY
The name אָחָז (ʾĀḥāz, “he has grasped”) stands beside a king who, under pressure, adds to his breach with the LORD.
THE MEANING
When pressure closes in, the response can be to tighten the grip and add to the breach with the LORD. This verse makes distress a revealing hour: it does not automatically produce a turn.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that suffering automatically turns a person toward God; here distress becomes the occasion for a deeper breach.
THE ROOT
לִמְעֹל
limʿōl
GROWS FROM
מעל
m-ʿ-l
To act unfaithfully, deal treacherously, or make a breach.
“Trespass” can sound like a single offense; this root carries the sense of unfaithful dealing and breach of trust with the LORD. The verse says Ahaz adds to that breach under pressure.
ALSO GROWS
māʿal: To act unfaithfully or deal treacherously.
מָעַל
It makes the trespass a breach of trust, not merely a boundary crossed.
meʿīlāh: Unfaithfulness, trespass, or sacrilege.
מְעִילָה
The noun names the breach itself, showing what Ahaz deepens.
הָצֵר
hāṣēr
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
To bind, press in, or constrict.
“was pressed” in this verse is hāṣēr. The word carries the sense of being pressed into a narrow place, not merely feeling sad. It marks a constricted hour; what follows is further breach rather than release.
ALSO GROWS
ṣar: Narrow, tight, or distressing.
צַר
It gives the pressure in the verse the shape of constriction.
ṣārāh: Trouble or distress.
צָרָה
It shows distress as a condition of being pressed in, the setting in which Ahaz adds to his breach.
אָחָז
ʾĀḥāz
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
To grasp, seize, or hold fast.
“Ahaz” in this verse is ʾĀḥāz. The name אָחָז (ʾĀḥāz, “he has grasped”) carries the root’s sense of holding fast. Beside the language of distress and added breach, it gives the verse a picture of pressure met with a tightening grip.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḥaz: To grasp, seize, or hold.
אָחַז
The verb gives the name its sense of grasping.
ʾaḥuzzāh: A holding, possession, or allotted property.
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun extends the same root into what is held or possessed.
THE PATTERN
Under pressure, resistance can deepen instead of opening into a turn.
Why should you still be struck? You keep adding a turning aside. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.And the people are scorched with great heat, and they speak harm against the name of God, who holds power over these blows, and they do not turn to give weight to him.THE THREAD
If a living soul acts treacherously and misses the mark through straying in the set-apart things of the LORD, then he brings to the LORD a whole ram from the flock, by your valuation in silver shekels, by the set-apart shekel, as a guilt offering.The word translated “trespass” here shares the root of Ahaz’s breach in 2 Chronicles. In both verses, the root points to unfaithful dealing with what belongs to the LORD, giving the phrase “against the LORD” the weight of a broken trust.
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