What Does 2 Chronicles 10:5 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days. And the people departed.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The pause does not cancel the return; it gives the return a time.
THE MEANING
A pause can be bounded without becoming abandonment. The people leave with a stated interval and a specific point of return, so the separation sits inside an exchange that is still open. Here, waiting belongs to the meeting rather than proving it is over.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a delayed answer means the door has closed: the interval is named, and return is already part of it.
THE ROOT
וְשׁוּבוּ
veshuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back; return.
“Come again; return” in this verse is veshuvu. The verb translated “Come again” carries the movement of turning back or returning. The same root can describe a return or turning and the act of bringing something back, so the return itself is central to the appointed meeting.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return; a turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch names return as a movement, illuminating the request as more than a later appearance: it is a turning back toward the same point of encounter.
heshiv: Bring back; restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This form describes causing something to return, showing how the root can hold restoration alongside the movement back.
וַיֵּלְכוּ
vayyeleḵu
GROWS FROM
הָלַךְ
halakh
Go; walk.
The word translated “departed” comes from the root for going or walking, adding the sense of movement underway. Beside the root for return, the people’s leaving becomes one movement in an exchange that remains open.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking; going.
הֲלִיכָה
This noun keeps the root’s sense of movement, echoing the people’s departure as a going rather than a fixed ending.
holekh: One who goes or walks.
הוֹלֵךְ
This form describes someone in motion, reinforcing the passage’s pairing of going away with a return still ahead.
THE PATTERN
A departure can remain temporary when return is named as the next movement.
Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;THE THREAD
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?Both “return” verbs here share the Hebrew root שׁוּב (shuv), meaning to turn back or return, with “Come again” in the current verse. Malachi adds a reciprocal return, opening the three-day pause as an interval with a way back still in view.
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