What Does 2 Kings 3:10 Mean?
And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the LORD has called these three kings together, to give them into the hand of Moab!
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 the king of Israel said, Alas! that the LORD hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab!THE KEY
The Hebrew says the LORD has “summoned” the three kings, and the king turns that summons into a verdict of surrender.
THE MEANING
When pressures converge around you, fear can make their gathering feel like proof that defeat is already decided. This verse gives that reading a voice: the king hears the LORD’s summons as a handover to Moab. The chapter’s next word reverses who is delivered into whose hand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A frightening convergence proves that God has arranged your defeat.
THE ROOT
קָרָא
qārāʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
Q-R-ʾ
Call, summon, proclaim, or name.
“called” in this verse is qārāʾ. The Hebrew verb means to call or summon; the verse does not say merely that the kings happened to gather. The king hears the summons as purposeful, then interprets its purpose as their surrender to Moab.
ALSO GROWS
miqrāʾ: Convocation; a proclaimed or summoned assembly.
מִקְרָא
A gathering can be understood as people brought together by a call, which sharpens the king’s fearful reading of the moment.
qōrēʾ: One who calls or proclaims.
קֹרֵא
This form keeps the caller in view: the king attributes the summons to the LORD, but his conclusion about its purpose remains his interpretation.
לָתֵת
latet
GROWS FROM
נתן
N-T-N
Give, set, or place.
“give them into the hand” in this verse is latet. The Hebrew phrase is “to give them into Moab’s hand,” making the king imagine the summons as an act of handing them over. The two verbs connect being called with being given, but they convey the king’s fearful conclusion rather than proving that defeat is the LORD’s purpose.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root of “give,” showing its range from placing someone in another’s hand to giving a gift.
nātûn: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
This form echoes the king’s fear that the kings have been placed under Moab’s power.
THE PATTERN
Fear can treat the shape of a crisis as a verdict, while a later word can disclose a different outcome.
And this is but a light thing in the eyes of the LORD. He will give the Moabites also into your hand.Call upon me in the day of the narrow place, and I draw you out, and you give me weight.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?THE THREAD
Call upon me in the day of the narrow place, and I draw you out, and you give me weight.“Called” here and “call” in the Psalm come from the same Hebrew root, קרא (qārāʾ), meaning to call or summon. The king hears the call as a summons toward defeat; the Psalm uses the same word for a cry in trouble that meets deliverance.
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