What Does 2 Chronicles 14:12 Mean in the King James?
So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
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 root behind “smote” also names a plague: the blow turns the advancing army’s momentum into flight.
THE MEANING
An advancing threat does not decide its own outcome: the LORD’s blow turns the attackers into the ones fleeing. The verse places the decisive action with the LORD, as the threatened side watches the advance break.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a force advancing with overwhelming strength has already determined the outcome.
THE ROOT
וַיִּגֹּף
wayyiggōp
GROWS FROM
נגף
To strike, push against, or deal a blow; this root also forms a Hebrew word for plague.
“smote” in this verse is wayyiggōp. The blow is concrete in Hebrew, and its root also names a plague. English separates a strike from a sweeping affliction, while the root connects them as forms of striking force.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaph: To strike or smite.
נָגַף
This is the verb family behind the LORD’s blow in the verse, making the disruption of the Ethiopian advance vivid.
maggephah: Plague or blow of affliction.
מַגֵּפָה
The same root names a calamity elsewhere, linking a single strike with a force that spreads through a whole people.
וַיָּנֻסוּ
wayyānusū
GROWS FROM
נוס
To flee or escape.
“fled” in this verse is wayyānusū. The root’s family includes both fleeing and refuge. The army that arrives as a threat becomes the one needing a way out.
ALSO GROWS
nās: Fleeing or taking flight.
נָס
This form names the motion the Ethiopians make when the blow breaks their advance.
mānōs: Refuge or a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
The same root shifts from flight itself to the refuge sought by someone fleeing.
THE PATTERN
When hostile power meets the LORD’s authority, its advance can break into scattering and flight.
And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.THE THREAD
And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.Isaiah uses the same נגף (nāgaph, to strike) root behind “smote,” then places that blow beside healing: “he shall smite and heal it.” The connection widens the root’s story toward restoration while leaving this verse’s blow and flight fully intact.
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