What Does 2 Chronicles 6:35 Mean?
Then hear and respond from the heavens their prayer and their pleading, and bring about their judgment.
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 their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.THE KEY
Here, heaven’s hearing is not passive listening: the prayer asks for the case itself to be acted on as justice.
THE MEANING
This is a present-tense plea: hear the prayer and supplication, then act on the case with justice. The appeal asks for more than attention; it asks for a response in the matter itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that prayer is only being noticed or comforted: this petition asks for the case itself to receive a response.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּטָם
mishpāṭām
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, render a decision, or govern.
“bring about their judgment” in this verse is mishpāṭām. The Hebrew says, literally, “do their mishpat”, their judgment or justice. The request moves from hearing their plea to acting on the case, joining listening with a decision.
ALSO GROWS
shāphaṭ: To judge or render a decision.
שָׁפַט
The verb names the act the prayer asks God to carry out for their case.
shōphēṭ: A judge; one who judges.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows the personal role behind the judgment requested.
mishpāṭ: Judgment, justice, or a legal decision.
מִשְׁפָּט
This is the noun in the verse: the matter is not merely heard but brought to judgment.
וְשָׁמַעְתָּ
wə-shāmaʿtā
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is wə-shāmaʿtā. The prayer pairs hearing with doing their mishpat, so hearing here opens toward response. The related word shema can carry the sense of hearing that answers; the verse makes that connection concrete by placing action beside listening.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; heed.
שְׁמַע
Its familiar call to hear and respond illuminates why the verse follows hearing with a request for action.
shemuʿāh: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s connection to what reaches the ear, while the verse shows that a heard plea can become a matter for judgment.
תְּחִנָּתָם
təḥinnātām
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or be gracious.
“pleading” in this verse is təḥinnātām. The word for supplication grows from the root for showing favor. The prayer is both a request to be heard and an appeal for favor as the case is addressed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: To show favor or be gracious.
חָנַן
This is the root action beneath the plea for supplication.
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This related noun makes the appeal for favor audible within the word translated “supplication.”
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents a cry heard by God as a matter that calls for response, deliverance, or justice.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
Then hear and respond in heaven to their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.This verse repeats the same petition, including the roots for hearing, supplication, and their cause. The repeated wording holds the request together: hear the prayer and act on the case.
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