What Does 2 Chronicles 7:21 Mean?

And this house, which is high, every one who passes by it shall be stunned, and he shall say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?

2 Chronicles 7:21 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

THE KEY

The house’s height does not keep it from becoming the very desolation that makes passersby ask why.

THE MEANING

Even a house that stands high can be brought low; its desolation can be so visible that someone passing by asks why the LORD has done this to the land and the house. The ruin is exposed, and the shock belongs to the person who sees it. The verse holds the devastation and the question together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that what is exalted is therefore secure: height does not guarantee a dwelling’s safety.

THE ROOT

לְשַׁמָּה

leshammah

GROWS FROM

שמם

sh-m-m

To become desolate or appalled; to be left in a state of ruin that provokes shock.

“stunned” in this verse is leshammah. The word translated “astonishment” carries the sense of desolation that leaves observers appalled. The same root names both the ruined condition and the shock of seeing it: the house itself becomes the evidence that provokes the question.

ALSO GROWS

shamem: To be desolate or appalled.

שָׁמֵם

This verb holds together the house’s ruin and the passerby’s shock at seeing it.

shemamah: Desolation, waste.

שְׁמָמָה

This noun makes clear that the astonishment is rooted in the visible state of the place: it has become waste.

THE PATTERN

The public ruin of a once-significant place makes its fall a question or lament for those who witness it.

And this house, which was high, every one who passes by it shall be stunned and shall hiss, and they shall say, "Why has the LORD done so to this land and to this house?"

1 Kings 9:8 · SDVThe house’s height and the passersby’s astonishment echo the same warning: its visible fall prompts the question of what the LORD has done.

And all the nations will say, "Why has the LORD done this to this land? What means the burning of this great anger?"

Deuteronomy 29:24 · SDVThe ruined land becomes a public question, and the verse names the LORD’s anger as what the witnesses seek to understand.

And they throw dust on their heads, and cry out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships on the sea grew rich by her costliness! For in one hour she has been emptied.

Revelation 18:19 · SDVA great city’s sudden desolation becomes a public lament, exposing how quickly apparent greatness can fall.

THE THREAD

And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.

Jeremiah 19:8 · SDV

Jeremiah uses the same ⁨שׁמם⁩ word family for the city’s desolation and the onlooker’s astonishment. The shared root shows the ruin itself becoming what leaves the passerby appalled.

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