What Does 2 Chronicles 6:32 Mean?
Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, but who comes from a far land for the sake of your great nature, and your strong hand, and your outstretched arm, if they come and pray in this house,
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
Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house;THE KEY
The stranger crosses distance toward the divine name, God’s nature, and is met by an arm already stretched outward.
THE MEANING
A person can stand far from the familiar and still be drawn toward the nature of God. The stranger’s difference remains visible, yet it does not keep that person from coming into the house to pray. God’s mighty hand appears here with an arm already extended toward the one approaching.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must first belong to the inside group to approach God’s house. The verse makes room for someone it explicitly names as outside Israel.
THE ROOT
הַנָּכְרִי
hannokri
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To distinguish or recognize; in this word, to mark as foreign or other.
“foreigner” in this verse is hannokri. The word keeps the person’s outsider status in view even as the verse gives that person a place in the prayer scene. Its root’s range between foreignness and recognition makes the movement precise: the difference is seen, not erased, as the stranger approaches.
ALSO GROWS
nekar: A state or place of being foreign.
נֵכָר
It echoes the stranger’s origin outside Israel while the verse describes that person coming to pray.
hikkir: To recognize or distinguish someone or something.
הִכִּיר
This branch highlights that the stranger is identifiable as an outsider; the approach does not depend on that difference disappearing.
רְחוֹקָה
reḥoqah
GROWS FROM
רחק
r-ḥ-q
To be or become distant; to put at a distance.
The land’s distance is a condition, not the stranger’s permanent identity: the person comes from far away toward the house. English gives the geography, while the root also carries distance as something that can change.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: Located at a great distance.
רָחוֹק
It names the distance the stranger crosses on the way to pray.
hirḥiq: To place something at a distance or make it remote.
הִרְחִיק
The same root can describe distance being made; here, distance does not prevent movement toward the house.
הַנְּטוּיָה
hanetuyah
GROWS FROM
נטה
n-ṭ-h
To stretch, extend, incline, or turn aside.
“stretched out” in this verse is hanetuyah. The arm is described as extended, not merely strong. Paired with the mighty hand, the image gives power a direction: outward, toward the one who comes.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To extend outward or incline in a direction.
נָטָה
This is the action carried by the stretched arm in the verse.
maṭṭeh: A staff or rod, and by extension a tribal branch or group.
מַטֶּה
The branch preserves the root’s sense of extension, giving the image of something reaching outward.
THE PATTERN
A person’s distance or outsider status does not close the path into God’s presence.
Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.And I, if I am lifted up from the ground, will draw all humankind to myself.THE THREAD
Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.Solomon’s prayer names the stranger praying in this house; Isaiah names that same house a place of prayer for all people. The stranger’s presence is part of what the house is for.
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