What Does 2 Chronicles 6:30 Mean?
Then hear and respond from the heavens, from your sitting place, and release, and give to each man according to his ways, whose heart you know. For you alone know the hearts of the children of humankind.
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
Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:)THE KEY
The same God who pardons also sees the whole path and knows the heart beneath it.
THE MEANING
God hears, releases what is forgiven, and gives to each person according to the path they walk, while knowing the heart beneath it. Pardon and response belong together here; what others see never exhausts what God knows about you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that forgiveness makes the way you walk irrelevant.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive by encounter.
“know” in this verse is yādaʿ. The verse says God knows the heart, then repeats that God alone knows human hearts. This knowing reaches the inner person beyond what outward behavior can show.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, knowing.
דַּעַת
This noun comes from the same root, showing that knowing is a state of awareness, not simply a conclusion drawn from appearances.
yodea: One who knows.
יוֹדֵעַ
This form names the one who knows; the verse places the heart in the sight of the one who knows it fully.
סָלַח
sālaḥ
GROWS FROM
סלח
To pardon or forgive; release from a charge.
The word family names both pardon and being pardoned. Here release stands beside an answer given according to each person’s path, so forgiveness does not make the life unseen.
ALSO GROWS
seliḥah: Forgiveness, pardon.
סְלִיחָה
The noun names the act of pardon, making the release in this prayer explicit.
nislaḥ: Be forgiven, be pardoned.
נִסְלַח
This form shows the one receiving forgiveness within the same word family.
נָתַן
nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is nātan. The verb translated “render” belongs to the concrete family of giving and placing. Each person receives an answer in relation to the path they walk, with the heart known fully.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind the act of giving described in the verse.
mattānāh: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun carries the same root into something given, echoing the concrete sense behind “render.”
THE PATTERN
God sees the heart beneath outward conduct and answers with full knowledge of both the inner person and the path they walk.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.In the day when God judges the covered things of humans, according to my good news, through Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.Psalm 139:1 uses the same Hebrew root יָדַע (yādaʿ, know or perceive) for “known,” and joins it to “searched.” The knowing in Chronicles is thorough and personal: the inner life is already seen by the one hearing the prayer.
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