What Does 2 Chronicles 20:12 Mean in the King James?
O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.
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
When strength and the next move are both gone, the prayer still has one thing: eyes turned toward God.
THE MEANING
You ask God to judge the force coming against you while admitting you have no strength to meet it and cannot see what to do. Your eyes remain turned toward God. The verse holds a direct plea for judgment together with your exposed helplessness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that if you cannot act or see a solution, there is no response left; the verse gives your turned attention a place even in that uncertainty.
THE ROOT
עֵינֵינוּ
ʿênênû
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; the same Hebrew word also names a spring or fountain.
The Hebrew word for “eyes” also carries the sense of a spring or fountain. The prayer ends by turning its sight toward God, its only remaining posture when strength and a plan are absent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; also a spring, fountain, or well.
עַיִן
This shared word holds sight and a source of flowing water together, giving “our eyes are upon thee” a sense of more than simply looking.
maʿyan: A spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related form makes the spring sense explicit; the verse closes with sight directed toward God rather than with a claim to know the way forward.
נֵדַע
nēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive; the word family includes knowing by encounter, not only information.
The speaker says plainly, “we do not know what to do.” The next clause gives no hidden strategy in its place: it turns from the absence of a plan to the direction of the eyes.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb’s base form; here its negation makes the lack of a clear next step explicit.
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows the broader knowing-family behind the speaker’s admission that the way forward is unknown.
THE PATTERN
When the way forward is hidden, scripture locates dependence in where the eyes turn rather than in mastery of the next move.
Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.Both verses use עַיִן (ʿayin, eye) for the image of eyes turned toward the LORD. Psalm 123 makes the waiting explicit, opening the present prayer’s final image as a gaze held toward God while help is awaited.
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