What Does 2 Chronicles 30:10 Mean?
And the runners passed through from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but they laughed at them and mocked them.
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
So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.THE KEY
The invitation crosses the land on human feet, while ridicule tries to stop it by turning its messengers into a joke.
THE MEANING
A call toward return moves through ordinary people and reaches you across familiar boundaries; some hear it and answer with contempt. Their laughter makes the messengers small in public, but the verse does not let that response erase the call.
THE ROOT
הָרָצִים
hārāṣîm the runners
GROWS FROM
רוץ
Run, move swiftly.
The word is literally “runners”: the call reaches across the land through people moving from city to city. “Posts” can sound like an institution, while the Hebrew keeps the human motion in view.
ALSO GROWS
rāṣ: A runner; one who runs.
רָץ
The messengers are named by their movement, showing how the invitation travels.
lāruṣ: To run.
לָרוּץ
This verb makes the verse’s repeated journey from city to city physically vivid.
מַשְׂחִיקִים
maśḥîqîm laughing
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
Laugh, play; the context can give the laughter a derisive edge.
“laughed at them” in this verse is maśḥîqîm laughing. The verse uses this root for laughter, then pairs it with a separate word for mockery, making the contempt unmistakable. The same root can describe laughter as joy, so here the scorn comes from the posture of the laugh, not from laughter itself.
ALSO GROWS
śeḥōq: Laughter.
שְׂחוֹק
This noun shows the root’s broader range beyond the contemptuous laughter in this verse.
yiśḥāq: He laughs.
יִשְׂחָק
Psalm 2:4 uses this form of the same root for the LORD’s laughter at rulers who defy him.
THE PATTERN
A message that unsettles what people assume can draw ridicule before it draws a hearing.
But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the burning of the LORD's anger rose against his people, until there was no healing.And they laughed him down, knowing that she had died.When they heard of the standing up from the dead, some jeered, and others said, We will hear you again about this.THE THREAD
He who sits in the heavens laughs, and the Lord mocks them.The word translated “shall laugh” comes from שׂחק, the same root as “laughed” here. In Chronicles the people use laughter to belittle the messengers; Psalm 2 turns the same word toward rulers who imagine their defiance is ultimate.
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