What Does 2 Chronicles 28:10 Mean in the King James?
And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
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
As the captors plan to put Judah under them, the verse names the guilt already resting with the captors themselves.
THE MEANING
When you seek to place another person under your power, this verse turns the question toward what is already present in your own life before God. The ability to make another serve does not remove your own guilt before the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power to punish or enslave another proves the powerful person is right with God; the verse confronts the captors with their own guilt.
THE ROOT
אֲשָׁמוֹת
ʾăšāmōt
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
Be guilty, incur guilt; guilt or offense.
Beneath “sins” is אשם (ʾāshām, guilt or offense), a word family that also names a guilt offering. The question presses the captors to face the guilt already with them before they presume to enslave Judah.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsham: Be guilty; incur guilt.
אָשַׁם
Guilt is something incurred, not merely a charge aimed at an opponent; here the prophet asks whether it is present among the captors too.
ʾāshām: Guilt; guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
The same word family names both guilt and the offering brought for guilt, linking wrongdoing with accountability before the LORD.
לִכְבֹּשׁ
likhbōsh
GROWS FROM
כבש
k-b-sh
Subdue; bring under control.
“keep under” in this verse is likhbōsh. The verb carries the force of subduing, not simply keeping someone nearby. The same root appears in the command to “subdue” the earth; here its object is people, making the intended coercion plain.
ALSO GROWS
kābash: Subdue; bring under mastery.
כָּבַשׁ
This verb’s force clarifies that the captors mean to bring Judah under their control.
ve-khivshuhā: And subdue it (Genesis 1:28).
וְכִבְשֻׁהָ
The creation command uses the same root for subduing the earth; in this verse, the target is Judah.
עֲבָדִים
ʿăvādīm
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work; serve.
“bondmen” in this verse is ʿăvādīm. עֲבָדִים (ʿăvādīm, servants or slaves) comes from the root עבד (ʿāvad, work or serve). The word family can describe service, but here the plan to possess people makes that service coerced.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvad: Work; serve.
עָבַד
The verb is also used for serving the LORD; this verse’s context makes clear that the service imposed on Judah is forced.
ʿeved: Servant; slave.
עֶבֶד
This singular form names the status the captors intend to impose on the people of Judah.
THE PATTERN
The power to accuse or dominate another does not remove the guilt already present in the one who wields it.
Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.THE THREAD
And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.Leviticus uses אָשָׁם (ʾāshām, guilt offering) from the same אשם (ʾ-sh-m) word family that appears here as “sins.” That link makes the accusation concrete: the captors’ guilt stands before the LORD even as they plan to place Judah under them.
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