What Does 2 Chronicles 32:6 Mean?
And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spoke upon their hearts, saying,
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 he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying,THE KEY
The verse joins practical readiness for war with words directed to the people’s hearts, showing that reassurance does not require danger to be gone.
THE MEANING
What meets you here is the pairing of practical readiness and words aimed at the heart. The threat remains real, yet inward reassurance has a place while action continues.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that comfort means denying danger: the captains are already set over the people when the heart-directed words are spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר עַל־לְבָבָם
waydabbēr ʿal-lĕḇāḇām
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; its related noun means word or matter.
“spoke upon their hearts” in this verse is waydabbēr ʿal-lĕḇāḇām. The Hebrew phrase centers the address on their hearts; the KJV’s “comfortably” conveys its effect, while the Hebrew makes its destination vivid. The same root links speaking with davar, “word” or “matter,” so spoken words meet the people inwardly as well as publicly.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
This related noun shows the shared root behind the act of speaking and the words themselves.
mĕdabbēr: One who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the focus on a speaker whose words reach the people’s hearts.
רְחוֹב
rĕḥōḇ
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or spacious.
The Hebrew word for “street” grows from the root for breadth, naming an open or broad place. The people gather in that shared space while war remains the reason for their preparation.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥāḇ: Broad; wide.
רָחָב
This adjective carries the breadth audible in the word for the gathering place.
merḥāḇ: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This related noun makes the spatial sense explicit: the street is a place of openness.
THE PATTERN
Heart-directed words can steady people in distress without pretending their danger has disappeared.
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her that her hard service is filled, that her crookedness is released, for she has taken from the LORD's hand double for all her shortcomings.Heaviness in the heart of a man bows it down, but a good word gladdens it.Therefore, comfort one another and build one another up, just as you are already doing.THE THREAD
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her that her hard service is filled, that her crookedness is released, for she has taken from the LORD's hand double for all her shortcomings.Isaiah repeats the Hebrew phrase דַּבְּרוּ עַל־לֵב (dabbĕrū ʿal-lēb), “speak to the heart,” behind the address here. The shared wording reveals comfort as speech reaching the inward center, while Isaiah’s verse also names warfare.
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