What Does 2 Chronicles 29:8 Mean?
So the anger of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he gave them over to trembling, to desolation, and to hissing, as your own eyes see.
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 wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.THE KEY
The LORD’s “delivering” here is an act of giving over: the people are placed into terror, desolation, and the public hiss of contempt.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s anger is upon a people, and they are handed into distress, desolation, and the contempt signaled by hissing. The closing words insist that this ruin stands in view, open to the eyes of those who witness it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Divine anger is only an invisible feeling with no visible communal consequence; the verse presents its effects as public and seen.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵם
wayittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place; here, “he gave them.”
“gave over” in this verse is wayittenem. The Hebrew verb centers the act of giving or placing. Here the objects of that giving are trouble, astonishment, and hissing, so being handed over is part of the judgment the verse describes.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “delivered”; it makes the people’s being placed into these consequences audible beneath the English wording.
mattan: A gift, something given.
מַתָּן
This noun from the same root keeps the basic idea of giving in view, even as this verse describes a grim outcome.
קֶצֶף
qetseph
GROWS FROM
קצף
Anger or indignation; the verb means to be angry.
The root names anger, and the verse places that anger “upon” Judah and Jerusalem. The following words show its consequence in the shared condition of the people: distress, desolation, and contempt.
ALSO GROWS
qatsaph: To be angry.
קָצַף
The verb form shows the same root as an active state of anger, which the verse depicts as bearing upon a people.
qetseph: Anger or indignation.
קֶצֶף
This noun is the word translated “wrath” and frames the calamities that follow.
שְׁרֵקָה
shereqah
GROWS FROM
שרק
To whistle or hiss.
“hissing” in this verse is shereqah. This word carries an audible sign of contempt: ruin is not only met with astonishment but answered with a hiss or whistle. The verse’s visible and audible language makes the people’s devastation unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
sharaq: To whistle or hiss.
שָׁרַק
The verb shows the sound-action contained in the noun translated “hissing.”
shereqah: A whistle or hiss.
שְׁרֵקָה
This noun names the public sound that accompanies the desolation described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When a people are given over to rupture, its consequences can become a public spectacle of astonishment, derision, or dishonor.
And you shall become a desolation, a proverb, and a taunt, among all the nations to which the LORD shall drive you.And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.Therefore God gave them over in the cravings of their hearts into uncleanness, for their bodies to be made weightless among themselves.THE THREAD
He gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.Psalm 106:41 uses the same Hebrew verb וַיִּתְּנֵם (wayittenem, “he gave them”) from נתן (natan, “to give or place”). Beside this verse, it makes “delivered” concrete: the people are placed under a power whose rule becomes part of their trouble.
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