What Does 2 Kings 14:10 Mean?
You have indeed struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Carry this weight, and settle in your house. Why would you stir up harm, that you should fall, you and Judah with you?
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
Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?THE KEY
The word translated “glory” carries the sense of weight: a victory can lift the heart before it is ready to bear the weight of another contest.
THE MEANING
You can succeed in one struggle and feel your reach has widened; this verse shows how quickly that win can lift your heart beyond good judgment. What feels like glory carries weight, and another contest can bring you down along with people bound to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that one victory proves the next contest is wise, or that its cost will fall on you alone.
THE ROOT
הִכָּבֵד
hikkabed
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be honored.
The command to take glory uses the same root as weight and honor. Glory here carries the sense of becoming weighty, while the warning that follows shows how another contest can weigh down both you and Judah.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
This branch keeps the physical sense of weight inside the word translated “glory.”
mekhubad: Honored, esteemed.
מְכֻבָּד
Honor belongs to the same family as weightiness: what is honored carries weight.
וּנְשָׂאֲךָ
u-nesa'akha
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted thee up” in this verse is u-nesa'akha. The verse says the heart has lifted you; the same root names both what is carried and what is raised. Its branches hold elevation and burden together: self-exaltation can outrun what a person, and those joined to them, can bear.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: A prince or leader; one raised to leadership.
נָשִׂיא
This branch shows elevation in a person’s position, echoing the heart lifted by victory.
massa: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This branch makes the cost of being lifted visible: what rises may also have weight to carry.
THE PATTERN
Self-exaltation can turn apparent elevation into a fall.
Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.But he gives greater favor. Therefore it says, God sets himself against those who lift themselves high, and gives favor to those made low.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;The same verb, נשא (nasa), appears in the phrase “thine heart be lifted up.” The shared root shows how success can carry the heart upward until it loses its footing; here, the resulting fall reaches beyond you to Judah.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us