What Does 2 Chronicles 29:10 Mean?
Now it is in my heart to cut a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that the burning of his anger may turn back from us.
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
Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.THE KEY
The covenant is made through a Hebrew verb that means “cut,” giving the bond the language of a cut.
THE MEANING
You hold an intention in your heart to enter covenant with the LORD, and the verse gives that bond the concrete language of cutting. Fierce anger has a direction here: it can turn away from you. The verse holds that turning alongside the heart’s present intention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fierce anger is fixed and must remain upon you; here it is named as something that may turn away.
THE ROOT
לִכְרֹת
likhrot
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut or cut off; in the phrase “cut a covenant,” make a covenant.
“cut a covenant” in this verse is likhrot. The English “make” holds a sharper Hebrew picture beneath it: the covenant is cut into being. The same root can also describe something being cut off, joining bond-making and separation in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
kārat: Cut; cut or make a covenant.
כָּרַת
This is the same verb as לִכְרֹת (likhrot), revealing the cutting image inside “make a covenant.”
nikhrat: Be cut off.
נִכְרַת
This form shares the root כרת and shows its other edge: what is cut can also be severed or removed.
וְתָשֹׁב
vetashov
GROWS FROM
שוב
Turn back, return.
“turn back from” in this verse is vetashov. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of turning or returning, while English “turn away” can sound like simple retreat. Fierce anger turns away from you as your heart holds an intention toward covenant.
ALSO GROWS
lashuv: To turn, return.
לָשׁוּב
This infinitive uses the same root and makes the verse’s movement plain: anger can turn from its present course.
meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
This word from שוב can name a turn away from the right path, showing how the root’s direction depends on what is turning and where it goes.
THE PATTERN
Covenant takes shape as a bond cut into relation and carried into the heart.
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.But this is the covenant I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will set my instruction within them, and write it upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.For this is the covenant that I will set in place with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will give my instructions into their minds, and scratch them upon their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.Genesis uses the same Hebrew verb, כרת, literally “cut,” for making a covenant. That shared root lets you hear the cutting image inside this verse’s phrase “make a covenant.”
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