What Does 2 Chronicles 6:33 Mean?
Then hear and respond from the heavens, from your sitting place, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you for, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, and stand in awe of you, as your people Israel do, and that they may know that this house, which I have built, is called by your name.
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 the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root says the stranger calls to God and God’s name is called over the house, joining an outsider’s prayer to the house’s purpose for all peoples.
THE MEANING
A stranger’s prayer is within the reach of heaven now, and its answer opens God’s name, God’s nature, to all peoples. The house bears that name as a sign whose meaning extends beyond its builders, so belonging is not a prerequisite for being heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that only insiders can be heard by God: the verse places a foreigner’s plea within God’s hearing and makes that response a witness for all peoples.
THE ROOT
יִקְרָא
yiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, cry out, or name.
“calleth / is called” in this verse is yiqra. English preserves “calleth” and “called,” but the repeated Hebrew root ties them tightly: the foreigner calls toward God, and God’s name is called over the house. The house’s identity is joined to a response that opens recognition of God to all peoples.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Convocation, assembly, or public reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows that a call can gather people; the stranger’s appeal belongs within the reach of a house whose purpose extends to all peoples.
qeri’ah: A calling, cry, or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The word carries the voice of an appeal, joining the stranger’s spoken request to the house being named for God.
THE PATTERN
God’s reach crosses inherited boundaries, making the divine nature known among all peoples.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the ground will be blessed.For there is no drawing apart between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich toward all who call upon him.But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.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.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root קרא (qara, “call” or “name”) when it says the house shall be called a house of prayer, in a passage welcoming the foreigner. The repeated root joins the stranger’s call in Chronicles to a house whose name and purpose extend to all people.
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