What Does 2 Chronicles 7:15 Mean?
Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.
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
Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.THE KEY
Prayer is met by open sight and attentive hearing: divine attention is pictured as fully present.
THE MEANING
The verse presents an attentive presence: eyes are open and ears are turned toward prayer made in this place. The prayer is held within the range of divine regard, not treated as distant noise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prayer is an unseen monologue with no attentive listener: the verse pictures eyes open and ears attending.
THE ROOT
קַשֻּׁבוֹת
qashuvot
GROWS FROM
קשב
Pay attention, give heed, listen attentively.
“attentive to” in this verse is qashuvot. The KJV’s “attent” carries the force of active heeding: the ears are not merely open to sound but giving attention. Paired with open eyes, this root depicts prayer met by focused regard.
ALSO GROWS
haqshivu: Give ear; attend.
הַקְשִׁיבוּ
This form describes directed listening, matching the ears turned toward prayer.
maqshiv: One who listens or attends.
מַקְשִׁיב
This listener-form makes attentiveness a quality of the hearer, not just a property of the prayer.
פְּתֻחוֹת
pethuchot
GROWS FROM
פתח
Open; make an opening.
The opening word also grows into images of entrances and keys. Here, open eyes suggest an unobstructed entrance into attention: the prayer is seen.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: Opening; doorway.
פֶּתַח
This branch gives “open” the image of an entrance, fitting the verse’s picture of access to divine regard.
maphteaḥ: Key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
The key belongs to the same root of opening, echoing the verse’s image of attention with no closed gate.
THE PATTERN
Prayer is received within divine attention, pictured through eyes that see and ears that hear.
That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.For the eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their pleading; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.THE THREAD
That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.This verse shares the Hebrew roots for “open” and “prayer” with 2 Chronicles 7:15. The later verse adds attentive ears, extending the image from open sight to active hearing.
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