What Does 2 Chronicles 21:16 Mean in the King James?
Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians:
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 LORD rouses the Philistines’ and Arabians’ רוּחַ (ruach), their animating breath, into motion against Jehoram.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the reader now with a hard claim about divine agency: the LORD stirs the Philistines and Arabians against Jehoram. The hostility and its violence remain explicit in the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that divine action can only be protective or gentle: here the verse names the LORD as the one who stirs hostile forces against Jehoram.
THE ROOT
וַיָּעֶר
wayya'er
GROWS FROM
עור
ʿ-w-r
To wake or rouse; to bring something from dormancy into activity.
The verb וַיָּעֶר (wayya’er; stirred up) comes from עור (ʿ-w-r; to rouse or awaken). Its companion noun רוּחַ (ruach; breath, wind) names the animating force of these peoples, so the image joins inner breath to outward movement.
ALSO GROWS
ʿur: To wake or rouse.
עוּר
The basic verbal form makes clear that the verse describes a force being awakened into action.
he'ir: He awakened or roused.
הֵעִיר
This causative form shows how the root can describe one agent bringing another into motion.
THE PATTERN
A force within is roused into action, and that inner movement becomes an outward deed.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,Ezra 1:1 uses the same rousing verb and רוּחַ (ruach; breath) for Cyrus, whose inward force becomes a public decree. The shared language links inner animation with outward consequence; here the consequence is violence.
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