What Does 2 Chronicles 20:33 Mean in the King James?

Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.

2 Chronicles 20:33 · 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 high places remain where the heart has not been made firm toward God: “prepared” carries the force of established.

THE MEANING

Where your heart is not yet established toward God, the high places remain standing. The verse traces what stays visible to an inward direction that has not yet become settled.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that outward reform can be complete while the heart remains unset toward God.

THE ROOT

הֵכִינוּ

hekhinu

GROWS FROM

כון

To be firm or established; in a causative form, to establish or make ready.

The word translated “prepared” carries the sense of making the heart firm toward God. The verse ties the high places that remain standing to a heart that has not yet been established in that direction.

ALSO GROWS

kun: To be firm or established.

כּוּן

The basic verb gives “prepared” its sense of becoming established, beyond simply planning or getting ready.

nakhon: Firm, established, set.

נָכוֹן

Psalm 78:8 uses this form of the same root for a heart that is not steadfast with God, echoing the unsettled heart in this verse.

hekhīn: To prepare, establish, make ready.

הֵכִין

This is the verb form behind ⁨הֵכִינוּ⁩, “they prepared,” showing that the heart is the thing being established toward God.

THE PATTERN

What remains in outward life follows the direction in which the heart is established.

And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 7:3 · KJVThe heart is set toward the LORD as the strange gods are put away, linking inward direction with what remains outwardly.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Psalm 57:7 · KJVA heart made firm toward God becomes visible in the praise that follows.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21 · KJVWhat you hold as treasure reveals where your heart is set, making inward attachment visible in your priorities.

THE THREAD

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

Psalm 78:8 · KJV

“Set not their heart aright” uses ⁨נָכוֹן⁩ (nakhon), from the same root ⁨כון⁩ (kun) as “prepared” here. The shared root shows that preparing the heart is establishing it with God, placing the unremoved high places alongside that unsettled inner state.

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