What Does 2 Chronicles 14:15 Mean in the King James?
They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
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 abundance brought back to Jerusalem is the residue of a capture: the Hebrew says the sheep are taken captive.
THE MEANING
This verse exposes how power can turn another community’s living wealth into the victor’s abundance: the tents are struck, and the animals are seized and carried into Jerusalem. The return carries the violence with it; the gain reaches a city whose name carries wholeness while its source remains another’s loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that abundance itself proves peaceful or rightful gain; here, abundance comes through seizure.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁבּוּ
vayishbu
GROWS FROM
שבה
sh-b-h
To take captive, lead away as a captive.
The Hebrew verb names capture, while “carried away” can sound like mere transport. The flock is described as captive spoil, so the verse’s abundance is inseparable from the force that takes it.
ALSO GROWS
shevi: Captivity; captives.
שְׁבִי
This noun shares the seed of taking captive and makes the coercion in the verse’s “carried away” visible.
shavuy: A captive person.
שָׁבוּי
The same root can name the one seized, underscoring that this is a taking by force rather than an ordinary transfer.
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ
vayyashuvu
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
To turn back, return.
“returned” in this verse is vayyashuvu. The verb carries the sense of turning back. The destination, יְרוּשָׁלִַם (Yerushalayim), carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) in its name; here the return to that city follows a seizure of wealth, holding the destination’s name alongside the violence of the journey.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn back; return.
שׁוּב
This is the root’s basic movement, clarifying that the force turns back toward Jerusalem.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch preserves the root’s sense of a changed direction, echoing the return named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
In war, victory is often measured by goods and animals transferred from the defeated to the victor.
And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.THE THREAD
Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.The captivity word in Jeremiah grows from the same root, שבה (sh-b-h), that names the taking in this verse. Here the captors themselves enter captivity, making the power behind the seizure reversible.
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