What Does 2 Chronicles 20:2 Mean in the King James?
Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi.
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 Hebrew word for “told” shares its root with “before” and “in front of”: the threat reaches Jehoshaphat first as something set before him.
THE MEANING
A crisis becomes present when it is reported: its size, direction, and location enter your awareness before its outcome does. Jehoshaphat’s name means “YHWH judges,” so judgment is already carried in the name of the one receiving the alarm.
THE ROOT
וַיַּגִּידוּ
vayaggidu
GROWS FROM
נגד
To make known or declare; related forms also carry the sense of what is in front or opposite.
Vayaggidu (וַיַּגִּידוּ, “they told”) comes from נגד (nagad, “make known, declare”); the same word family includes neged (נֶגֶד, “before, in front of, opposite”). The report sets the approaching threat before the king’s awareness, before its outcome is known.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: To tell, declare, make known.
הִגִּיד
This is the report verb itself: the message brings the threat into view.
neged: Before, in front of, opposite.
נֶגֶד
This related form links disclosure with placing something before another’s attention.
nagid: Leader, ruler.
נָגִיד
This related word for a leader carries the sense of one who stands prominent or at the front.
הָמוֹן
hamon
GROWS FROM
המה
To roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound; the related noun can mean tumult, crowd, or abundance.
The “great multitude” is named with hamon, a word that can hold both a crowd and its tumultuous noise. The root lets the threat be heard as well as counted.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To roar, murmur, or surge in tumult.
הָמָה
The verb makes audible the uproar held inside the word for the multitude.
hamon: Tumult, crowd, multitude, abundance.
הָמוֹן
In “great multitude,” the word carries both the force of numbers and the pressure of a swelling crowd.
יְהוֹשָׁפָט
Yehoshaphat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, govern, or render a decision.
“Jehoshaphat” in this verse is Yehoshaphat. Yehoshaphat (יְהוֹשָׁפָט, “YHWH judges”) joins the divine name with shaphat (שָׁפַט, “judge, govern”). Judgment is already carried in the name of the person who hears the report.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge, govern, render a decision.
שָׁפַט
This verb supplies the action compressed into Jehoshaphat’s name.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, a decision or case.
מִשְׁפָּט
This noun shows the root’s reach from the act of judging to the judgment itself.
THE PATTERN
A report of danger makes an approaching crisis present before its outcome is known.
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.THE THREAD
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 phrase הָמוֹן רָב (hamon rav, “great multitude”) returns verbatim in the prayer: it is the same word for the force reported here. What arrives as a threat is spoken back in the next verse as the thing Jehoshaphat brings before God.
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