What Does 2 Chronicles 6:42 Mean?
O LORD God, do not turn back the face of your anointed one. Remember the faithful loves of David your servant.
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
O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.THE KEY
The prayer asks God not to turn away from the anointed, grounding that request in remembered faithful love rather than present merit.
THE MEANING
The prayer asks that God’s face remain toward the anointed one and invokes the faithful love bound to David (דָּוִד, Dāwīd, “beloved”), God’s servant. For you now, it gives the fear of being turned away words inside a relationship: the plea leans on faithful love already remembered, not a new claim of worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that feeling unseen means there is no relationship left to appeal to: the prayer still speaks from within a bond of service and faithful love.
THE ROOT
חַסְדֵי
chasdei
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful, loyal love that sustains a bond.
“faithful loves” in this verse is chasdei. The word translated “mercies” carries the sense of faithful love, not pity alone. The plea rests on a bond already held in memory, so the anointed one’s appeal is grounded in enduring relationship.
ALSO GROWS
ḥesed: Faithful love
חֶסֶד
This is the singular form behind “mercies,” showing the verse’s appeal is rooted in loyal love.
ḥasid: A faithful or loyal one
חָסִיד
This branch describes a person marked by the same quality of faithful love invoked in the prayer.
תָּשֵׁב
tāshēv
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ו־ב
sh-w-b
Return, turn back.
“do not turn back” in this verse is tāshēv. The English phrase sounds like simple withdrawal, while the Hebrew root carries the motion of turning or returning. The prayer’s image is relational orientation: the face is not to be turned away.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn or return
שׁוּב
The root’s basic motion keeps the prayer focused on the direction of God’s attention.
teshuvah: Return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the root’s motion of return, echoing the verse’s concern with turning and presence.
מְשִׁיחֶךָ
meshichekha
GROWS FROM
מ־שׁ־ח
m-sh-ḥ
Apply oil; anoint.
“anointed one” in this verse is meshichekha. The title marks a person as set apart for an entrusted role. The prayer concerns the face of the one marked in this way, not an unnamed or interchangeable person.
ALSO GROWS
mashiach: The anointed one
מָשִׁיחַ
This is the title behind “thine anointed,” joining the prayer to a person marked for a role.
mishchah: Anointing oil or ointment
מִשְׁחָה
This branch names the substance used in anointing, connecting the title to the act of setting apart.
THE PATTERN
A present plea for God’s attention draws strength from faithful love remembered across generations.
Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.He has taken hold of Israel his servant, to remember his faithful love.THE THREAD
Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.Isaiah names the “sure mercies of David,” using the same root ח־ס־ד (ḥ-s-d) for faithful love that Solomon invokes here. That connection grounds the plea in a durable bond, not a passing feeling of favor.
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