What Does 2 Corinthians 10:6 Mean?
And holding ourselves ready to render justice against every hearing that turns aside, when your hearing and response is filled.
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 having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.THE KEY
Disobedience and obedience share the same Greek seed, hearing, so correction stands ready when hearing has been fully answered.
THE MEANING
Correction is held in readiness until your obedience reaches completion. The two central words share the seed of hearing: disobedience is hearing missed or resisted; obedience is hearing answered. The verse ties readiness to confront disobedience to the fullness of your own response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that correction is ready before your obedience is fulfilled.
THE ROOT
παρακοή
parakoē
GROWS FROM
ἀκου
akou-
Hear, listen.
“every hearing that turns aside” in this verse is parakoē. English makes disobedience and obedience sound like separate kinds of conduct, but both words grow from the same hearing-root. Their prefixes mark different relations to hearing: it can be missed or set aside, or it can be received and answered.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; what is heard.
ἀκοή
The shared root makes hearing the ground beneath both responses named in this verse.
parakoē: Failure to hear; disobedience.
παρακοή
This branch shows disobedience as a rupture in hearing, not an unrelated condition.
hypakoē: Obedience; responsive listening.
ὑπακοή
This is hearing brought into response, the obedience whose fulfillment marks when readiness arrives.
ἐκδικῆσαι
ekdikēsai
GROWS FROM
δίκη
dikē
Right, justice.
“render justice against” in this verse is ekdikēsai. The word translated “revenge” carries the force of doing justice or exacting an answer. That keeps the verse’s severity intact while showing that its readiness concerns the setting-right of disobedience.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Right, justice.
δίκη
It names the justice at the center of the word translated “revenge.”
ekdikēsis: Vindication; punishment.
ἐκδίκησις
This related form shows the word’s connection to an answer rendered against wrongdoing.
πληρωθῇ
plērōthē
GROWS FROM
πληρόω
plēroō
Fill, make complete.
“is filled” in this verse is plērōthē. The verse sets readiness against a measure of fullness: obedience is not merely beginning, but being brought to completion. The timing of correction is therefore bound to what has been filled out in the reader’s own response.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
It shares the language of fullness behind obedience being fulfilled.
plērōma: Fullness; that which fills.
πλήρωμα
It echoes the verse’s emphasis on a response brought to its full measure.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents hearing as a response that becomes trust and action.
Because Abraham heard and responded to my voice, and guarded my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.Romans 10:17 names ἀκοή (akoē, “hearing”), from the same ἀκου- (akou-, “hear, listen”) seed carried in παρακοή (parakoē, “disobedience”) and ὑπακοή (hypakoē, “obedience”) here. It opens this verse further: hearing is the channel through which πίστις (pistis, “trust, leaning one’s full weight”) comes, and the difference is whether hearing is missed or answered.
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