What Does 2 Chronicles 6:20 Mean?
That your eyes may be open upon this house day and night, even upon the place of which you have said you would set your name there, to hear and respond to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.
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
That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.THE KEY
God’s name is set in this house as nature, and the verse asks for that nature to meet prayer with eyes open day and night.
THE MEANING
This place bears the nature of the One who attends it. Your prayer is turned toward a presence whose eyes stay open and whose hearing is attentive through both day and night.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that divine attention fades when night falls is undone: the eyes remain open day and night.
THE ROOT
לָשׂוּם
lasum to put
GROWS FROM
שׂים
s-y-m
to set, place, or put
The house is named as the place where God’s name, שֵׁם (shem), name as nature, is set. Name (shem) and “there” (שָׁם, sham) share the consonantal spelling שם but are distinct words; their sound and spelling echo binds nature to this place without making them the same root.
ALSO GROWS
sam: he set or placed
שָׂם
This form makes the verse’s language of placing concrete: the name is set at a particular place.
yasim: he will set or place
יָשִׂים
The same root carries the act of placing forward, keeping the focus on what is established there.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoaʿ to hear
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, listen, and heed
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoaʿ to hear. The request is not only for a gaze upon the house but for hearing that attends to prayer. The Hebrew root שמע holds hearing and responsive attention together, so “hearken” carries more than sound reaching an ear.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: hear, listen, heed
שָׁמַע
This is the root’s core sense: hearing that receives what is said.
shemuʿah: a report, or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what comes through hearing, linking the listener to the message received.
shomeaʿ: one who hears; a listener
שֹׁמֵעַ
It gives the verse’s request a relational shape: prayer is directed toward a listener.
פְּתוּחוֹת
petuchot open
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
to open
The eyes are described as open, from the same root that names an opening or doorway. The image is one of continuing access: the house and the prayer directed toward it remain within the reach of attentive sight.
ALSO GROWS
petach: an opening or doorway
פֶּתַח
It carries the root’s image from open eyes to an open way.
mafteach: a key
מַפְתֵּחַ
The key belongs to the same family of opening, extending the verse’s image of access.
THE PATTERN
Divine attention meets prayer through sight and hearing, whether prayer rises from a sacred place or in secret.
The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.And it shall be, before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear and respond.But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the hidden. And your Father, who sees in the hidden, will give it back to you in the open.THE THREAD
And it shall be, before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear and respond.The Hebrew word for “hear” in Isaiah shares the root שמע (sh-m-ʿ) with “hearken” here. Isaiah opens the image further: attentive hearing reaches the prayer before the words are finished.
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