What Does 2 Chronicles 29:8 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
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’s “delivering” here is an act of giving over: the people are placed into terror, desolation, and the public hiss of contempt.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s anger is upon a people, and they are handed into distress, desolation, and the contempt signaled by hissing. The closing words insist that this ruin stands in view, open to the eyes of those who witness it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Divine anger is only an invisible feeling with no visible communal consequence; the verse presents its effects as public and seen.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵם
wayittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place; here, “he gave them.”
“delivered” in this verse is wayittenem. The Hebrew verb centers the act of giving or placing. Here the objects of that giving are trouble, astonishment, and hissing, so being handed over is part of the judgment the verse describes.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “delivered”; it makes the people’s being placed into these consequences audible beneath the English wording.
mattan: A gift, something given.
מַתָּן
This noun from the same root keeps the basic idea of giving in view, even as this verse describes a grim outcome.
קֶצֶף
qetseph
GROWS FROM
קצף
Anger or indignation; the verb means to be angry.
“wrath” in this verse is qetseph. The root names anger, and the verse places that anger “upon” Judah and Jerusalem. The following words show its consequence in the shared condition of the people: distress, desolation, and contempt.
ALSO GROWS
qatsaph: To be angry.
קָצַף
The verb form shows the same root as an active state of anger, which the verse depicts as bearing upon a people.
qetseph: Anger or indignation.
קֶצֶף
This noun is the word translated “wrath” and frames the calamities that follow.
שְׁרֵקָה
shereqah
GROWS FROM
שרק
To whistle or hiss.
“hissing” in this verse is shereqah. This word carries an audible sign of contempt: ruin is not only met with astonishment but answered with a hiss or whistle. The verse’s visible and audible language makes the people’s devastation unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
sharaq: To whistle or hiss.
שָׁרַק
The verb shows the sound-action contained in the noun translated “hissing.”
shereqah: A whistle or hiss.
שְׁרֵקָה
This noun names the public sound that accompanies the desolation described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When a people are given over to rupture, its consequences can become a public spectacle of astonishment, derision, or dishonor.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.Psalm 106:41 uses the same Hebrew verb וַיִּתְּנֵם (wayittenem, “he gave them”) from נתן (natan, “to give or place”). Beside this verse, it makes “delivered” concrete: the people are placed under a power whose rule becomes part of their trouble.
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