What Does 2 Chronicles 20:27 Mean in the King James?

Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

2 Chronicles 20:27 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The same Hebrew root names both the joy they carry home and the joy the LORD causes in them.

THE MEANING

Your return from opposition is more than getting away: the LORD causes joy within you, and that joy travels with you toward home. The people come back together, so the joy reaches the community. Here, joy is a present sign of release and return.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that joy after conflict must be produced by sheer will: the verse names the LORD as the one who causes it.

THE ROOT

בְּשִׂמְחָה

bəśimḥāh

GROWS FROM

שׂמח

to rejoice; to be glad

“joy / made them rejoice” in this verse is bəśimḥāh. The noun translated “joy” and the causative verb “made them rejoice” grow from the same root. They carry home the very joy the LORD causes in them: it is both their condition and the result of divine action.

ALSO GROWS

śāmaḥ: to rejoice; to be glad

שָׂמַח

The base verb names the action echoed in both forms used in the verse.

śimḥāh: joy; gladness

שִׂמְחָה

This noun names what the people carry as they return, from the same root as the LORD’s action within them.

THE PATTERN

God’s deliverance becomes joy the people share and carry forward.

The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

Psalm 126:3 · KJVThe LORD’s action is named as the source of a gladness shared by the people.

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12 · KJVJoy accompanies the people as they go forward, turning their movement into a shared expression of gladness.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13 · KJVJoy is presented as something God fills people with, carrying them into hope.

THE THREAD

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35:10 · KJV

Isaiah also describes people returning with joy, using ⁨שִׂמְחָה⁩ (śimḥāh, “joy”), from the same ⁨שׂמח⁩ (śāmaḥ, “rejoice; be glad”) root. The shared root makes joy part of what the returning people carry with them.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us