What Does 2 Chronicles 32:16 Mean?
And his servants spoke still more against the LORD God, and against his servant Hezekiah.
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
And his servants spake yet more against the LORD God, and against his servant Hezekiah.THE KEY
The same word names both sides as servants, but the one each serves shapes the direction of their allegiance.
THE MEANING
The verse places the LORD and his servant in one line of attack. It also puts two allegiances side by side: the same Hebrew word names the king’s servants and Hezekiah as the LORD’s servant, while the one each serves differs.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A servant is defined by the role alone, regardless of whose servant he is.
THE ROOT
עֲבָדָיו
‘avadav
GROWS FROM
עבד
to work, serve
“his servants” in this verse is ‘avadav. The same root names both the speakers and Hezekiah, but their service points in opposite directions. The word itself does not tell you whom someone serves; the relationship does.
ALSO GROWS
eved: servant, worker
עֶבֶד
This is the noun used for both the king’s servants and the LORD’s servant Hezekiah.
avodah: work, service
עֲבוֹדָה
It shows that being a servant is tied to the work and allegiance one gives.
דִּבְּרוּ
dibberu
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; word or matter
“spake” in this verse is dibberu. The Hebrew root connects speaking with a word or matter. Their words are presented as a concrete act directed against both the LORD and the one who serves him.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
This branch holds speech and matter together, giving the spoken attack weight as an act.
dibber: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb form behind “spake,” naming what the servants do in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Service is never an empty title: the one served shapes a person’s allegiance.
And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you settle. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.Do you not know that to the one you set yourselves beside as servants for hearing and response, his servants you are, the one you hear and respond to; whether of falling short unto death, or of hearing and response unto alignment?THE THREAD
And in every deed that he began in the serving of the house of God, and in the instruction, and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and he broke through.The same עבד root appears as “service” in the phrase “service of the house of God,” joined to seeking God with the whole heart. It opens “his servant” as active allegiance: the one attacked is identified by the direction of his work.
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