What Does 2 Chronicles 20:14 Mean in the King James?
Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation;
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
What English calls “Spirit” is Hebrew רוּחַ (ruach), breath, wind, and spirit in one word, so the LORD’s presence arrives as living movement in the congregation’s midst.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s breath comes upon one person among a gathered people. You meet the verse in that same human space: presence comes close enough to rest upon a body while others stand around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that divine presence belongs only somewhere apart from shared human life; here, the breath comes in the congregation’s midst.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Breath, wind, moving air; animating spirit.
English “Spirit” can sound abstract, while רוּחַ carries breath, wind, and animating presence in one Hebrew word. The consonantal kinship with רָוַח and רְוָחָה (“find room,” “relief”) lets that breath echo release into spaciousness, a sound-link English does not preserve.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Breath, wind, or spirit.
רוּחַ
The verse’s word holds these senses together, so the LORD’s presence can be heard as breath moving upon a person.
ravach: To find room or be relieved.
רָוַח
Its consonants echo רוּחַ and connect the breath’s movement with a sense of room opening.
revachah: Relief, respite, or room.
רְוָחָה
This related consonantal form names relief, letting the breath’s arrival resonate with spaciousness.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s breath enters human space as animating presence, bringing life or speech forth.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.THE THREAD
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.Job names רוּחַ (ruach) as God’s creative presence and pairs it with נִשְׁמַת (nishmat, breath) as what gives life. Together, the words let you hear the “Spirit of the LORD” as breath moving within a person.
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