What Does 2 Chronicles 28:5 Mean?
Wherefore the LORD his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, and they struck him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great blow.
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 LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.THE KEY
The verse names capture as a giving twice: one man is placed into two kings’ hands, and each transfer makes violence concrete.
THE MEANING
Here, a change of hands is never abstract: a man is given into the power of two kings, and the verse names beating, captivity, and slaughter. The repeated giving holds divine agency beside human violence without resolving their tension; that unresolved pairing remains present wherever power and suffering meet.
THE ROOT
נתן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
to give, set, or place
“gave” in this verse is natan. The same verb appears twice where English says “delivered.” Its repeated use makes the transfer unmistakable: the first handoff brings beating and mass captivity, and the second ends in slaughter.
ALSO GROWS
vayyitnehu: He gave him or placed him into another’s hand.
וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ
This form names the first transfer, into the king of Syria’s hand.
nittan: He was given or placed.
נִתָּן
This form repeats the same root in the second transfer, into the king of Israel’s hand.
THE PATTERN
The language of handing someone over can sit beside human violence without making that violence disappear.
And the LORD's anger burned hot against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of those who stripped them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before the faces of their enemies.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.THE THREAD
But Amaziah would not hear and respond, for it came from God, that he would give them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.The verb translated “deliver” comes from the same root of giving, and again places people into an enemy’s hand. That parallel sharpens the repeated transfer in this verse while leaving its divine agency and human violence in view.
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