What Does 2 Chronicles 7:20 Mean?
Then I will uproot them from my ground, which I have given them, and this house, which I have set apart for my name, I will throw away from my face, and I will give it as a proverb and a sharpened saying among all the nations.
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 will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.THE KEY
A gift from God does not become an inviolable possession: the same divine voice that gives the land can uproot its occupants and cast out the house set apart for his name.
THE MEANING
What you receive remains a gift, not a possession that shields you from removal. What is set apart for God’s name can still be cast from God’s sight, and what is uprooted can become a public proverb. Sacred designation does not guarantee permanence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a divine gift or sacred designation guarantees permanent protection.
THE ROOT
וּנְתַשְׁתִּים
u-netashtim
GROWS FROM
נתש
n-t-sh
To tear away, pull up, or uproot.
“uproot” in this verse is u-netashtim. This verb pictures the people torn out of the ground that held them; it gives the removal force and finality. The same root appears in Jeremiah’s phrase “to root out,” connecting the verse to a broader image of uprooting.
ALSO GROWS
nataš: To pull up or uproot.
נָתַשׁ
This is the root’s direct action: removing something by tearing it from where it is planted.
lintōsh: To root out or uproot.
לִנְתּוֹשׁ
The same verb appears in Jeremiah 1:10 as “to root out,” giving this verse a direct root-level echo.
נָתַתִּי
natatti
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“give it as” in this verse is natatti. The word for “I gave” shares its opening consonants with the word for “I uproot them,” though נתן and נתש are distinct roots. Their close placement lets gift and uprooting sound against one another: the land is given, then its occupants are pulled from it.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verse names the land as something placed in the people’s hands by a giver.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun keeps the land’s status as a gift in view even as the verse describes its withdrawal.
הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי
hiqdashti
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart or consecrate.
The house is set apart for God’s name, understood as the nature and character he makes known. Its consecration does not make the structure untouchable: it can still be cast from God’s sight.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness; a sacred thing.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch names the quality assigned to the house before the verse describes its removal.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch connects the root of consecration directly to the house as a sacred place.
THE PATTERN
A granted inheritance or sacred designation does not make its recipients immune from removal.
And it will be, as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to make you perish and to wipe you out. You will be uprooted from the ground you come in to possess.Therefore I will do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you lean your full weight upon, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.Look, your house is left to you, empty.THE THREAD
See, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to make perish and to break down, to build and to plant.The Hebrew verb behind “pluck them up” shares its root with Jeremiah’s “to root out.” That same word belongs to a sequence of uprooting, tearing down, building, and planting, which makes the removal here feel like a complete tearing out of what had been established.
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