What Does 2 Chronicles 25:13 Mean in the King James?
But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.
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
Sending the soldiers back from one battle does not end their violence; it shifts onto Judah’s towns.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps the cost of redirected violence in view: the soldiers fall upon Judah’s towns, kill three thousand people, and take their goods. The threat sent away from one battlefield becomes a danger to people nearby.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sending a threat away from one conflict makes everyone else safe.
THE ROOT
הֵשִׁיב
hēshîv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn, return, or cause to return.
The verb translated “sent back” carries the movement of turning or returning. Here, that movement does not mean the violence has ended: the soldiers are sent back from the battle, then attack Judah’s towns.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn or return.
שׁוּב
It is the root movement behind the soldiers being sent back.
teshuvah: Return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the root’s central idea of turning visible as a noun.
THE PATTERN
Violence carried into a community can turn its people against one another.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?THE THREAD
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.The word “return” in Hosea shares the root שׁוּב (shuv) with “sent back” here. The root names a movement whose direction matters: in Chronicles the soldiers are sent back from battle, while Hosea speaks of return toward the LORD.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us