What Does 2 Chronicles 30:12 Mean?
Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the command of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.
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
Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.THE KEY
A people’s common action grows from a shared heart that God’s hand gives.
THE MEANING
God gives a people one inner direction, and it takes shape in their action together. Their response to the king and princes is joined to the word of the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that public compliance alone explains their unity: the verse locates the one heart that enables their response in God’s hand.
THE ROOT
לתת
latet
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
Give, set, place.
“give” in this verse is latet. The verb carries the sense of giving as well as setting or placing. The shared heart is portrayed as something God places among the people, the source of the action that follows.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נתן
The root verb holds the action together: God gives the heart and thereby sets a shared direction among the people.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מתנה
This noun from the same root makes the gift-like character of their shared resolve visible.
לב
lev
GROWS FROM
לבב
levav
The heart or inner person.
The Hebrew heart includes thought, intention, and will along with feeling, so “one heart” describes a shared inner direction that can carry the people into action. A related verb can mean to capture or win the heart, suggesting inwardly gathered attention rather than mere outward compliance.
ALSO GROWS
levav: Heart; the inward person.
לֵבָב
This fuller form shows the heart as the center of a person’s inner life, making “one heart” more than a shared emotion.
libev: To captivate or win the heart.
לִבֵּב
This related verb links the heart with what holds a person’s attention and inward direction, illuminating how a people can act from a common center.
THE PATTERN
God-given inner unity becomes visible in a people’s shared action.
And I will give them one heart, and I will set a new breath within you. I will remove the stone heart from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh.And the multitude of those who trusted were of one heart and one living soul. Not one of them said that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared all things in common.For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for the sake of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
And I will give them one heart, and I will set a new breath within you. I will remove the stone heart from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh.Both verses use the root נתן (natan), meaning “give, set, place,” for God giving the people one heart. Ezekiel makes explicit what Chronicles shows in action: their shared direction begins as a gift from God.
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