What Does 2 Chronicles 29:10 Mean in the King James?
Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
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 covenant is made through a Hebrew verb that means “cut,” giving the bond the language of a cut.
THE MEANING
You hold an intention in your heart to enter covenant with the LORD, and the verse gives that bond the concrete language of cutting. Fierce anger has a direction here: it can turn away from you. The verse holds that turning alongside the heart’s present intention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fierce anger is fixed and must remain upon you; here it is named as something that may turn away.
THE ROOT
לִכְרֹת
likhrot
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut or cut off; in the phrase “cut a covenant,” make a covenant.
“make a covenant” in this verse is likhrot. The English “make” holds a sharper Hebrew picture beneath it: the covenant is cut into being. The same root can also describe something being cut off, joining bond-making and separation in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
kārat: Cut; cut or make a covenant.
כָּרַת
This is the same verb as לִכְרֹת (likhrot), revealing the cutting image inside “make a covenant.”
nikhrat: Be cut off.
נִכְרַת
This form shares the root כרת and shows its other edge: what is cut can also be severed or removed.
וְתָשֹׁב
vetashov
GROWS FROM
שוב
Turn back, return.
The Hebrew verb carries the sense of turning or returning, while English “turn away” can sound like simple retreat. Fierce anger turns away from you as your heart holds an intention toward covenant.
ALSO GROWS
lashuv: To turn, return.
לָשׁוּב
This infinitive uses the same root and makes the verse’s movement plain: anger can turn from its present course.
meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
This word from שוב can name a turn away from the right path, showing how the root’s direction depends on what is turning and where it goes.
THE PATTERN
Covenant takes shape as a bond cut into relation and carried into the heart.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:Genesis uses the same Hebrew verb, כרת, literally “cut,” for making a covenant. That shared root lets you hear the cutting image inside this verse’s phrase “make a covenant.”
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