What Does 2 Chronicles 7:22 Mean?
And they will say, Because they let go of the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and held fast to other gods, and bowed down to them and served them; therefore he has brought all this harm upon them.
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
And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.THE KEY
The verse sets the freedom of being brought out against the bondage of what is later grasped and served.
THE MEANING
The passage speaks now through a stark exchange: the one who brings you out is abandoned while other powers are grasped, bowed to, and served. It names the resulting devastation as bound to that transfer of allegiance. The memory of freedom and the cost of new service remain in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that turning from the source of deliverance is a neutral change of preference: what is grasped becomes a power served, and the passage names real harm.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיאָם
hotsi'am
GROWS FROM
יָצָא
yatsa
Go out, emerge; in this causative form, bring out.
“brought them out” in this verse is hotsi'am. The verb is the causative form of “go out”: he brings them out from Mitzrayim, the narrow place, into release. God is identified by opening that way out first; the later grasp of other gods is measured against that received freedom.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: Go out, come out, leave.
יָצָא
This is the movement carried in the verse’s “brought them forth”: an exit from the narrow place.
motsa: Going out; what comes forth.
מוֹצָא
The word keeps the idea of an opening or departure close to the verse’s remembered deliverance.
עָזְבוּ
azvu
GROWS FROM
עָזַב
ʿazav
Leave, abandon, relinquish.
“let go of” in this verse is azvu. This is a decisive leaving, not mere distance; the same word family can describe what is abandoned or left desolate. Against the prior act of bringing them out, forsaking is a rupture in allegiance.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazuv: Forsaken, abandoned.
עָזוּב
It gives the departure a concrete result: something or someone left behind.
ʿazuvah: Forsaken, abandoned.
עֲזֻבָה
The related form reinforces the verse’s picture of a relationship left behind.
וַיַּעַבְדֻם
vaya'avdum
GROWS FROM
עָבַד
ʿavad
Work, labor, serve.
“served” in this verse is vaya'avdum. The root also forms eved, “servant,” and avodah, “work” or “service.” English “serve” can sound like ceremony alone; Hebrew keeps service tied to labor and servitude, so the new gods become powers under which the people live.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This branch makes visible the servant’s position hidden inside “served them.”
ʿavodah: Work, labor, service.
עֲבֹדָה
It links allegiance to the actual service and labor given to those powers.
THE PATTERN
When the one who brings people out is forsaken, grasped alternatives become masters and the relationship carries consequences.
If you let go of the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and finish you, after he has done you good.Guard yourselves, lest your heart be enticed, and you turn aside to serve other gods and bow down to them.No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
Then your heart is raised high, and you let the LORD your God slip from you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;Both verses identify the LORD as the one who brings people out of Egypt, using the causative form of יָצָא (yatsa, go out). Here that remembered exit stands beside forsaking and serving other gods, making the contrast between freedom received and allegiance transferred impossible to miss.
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