What Does 2 Chronicles 32:21 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword.
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 Hebrew verb for “cut off” carries the force of making an army disappear, while the king’s own sons complete the collapse at home.
THE MEANING
The verse holds annihilation, humiliation, and family violence in one scene: an army is wiped out, its king returns shamed, and his own sons kill him in his god’s house. It speaks now of how completely rank can fail to protect a life: neither army, household, nor sanctuary guarantees this ruler shelter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that military dominance, royal lineage, or a sacred house makes a ruler untouchable collapses here: the army falls, and the king is killed by his own sons at home.
THE ROOT
וַיַּכְחֵד
wayyakḥēd
GROWS FROM
כחד
Hide or conceal; in the causative form, make disappear or wipe out.
The consonants כחד (kḥd) carry both concealment and erasure: what is hidden from sight can be made to vanish altogether. Here the verb describes the destruction of the Assyrian force, giving “cut off” the force of disappearance.
ALSO GROWS
kiḥadti: I concealed
כִּחַדְתִּי
In Job 6:10, the same root describes words not concealed; its range holds hiding alongside the verse’s more violent sense of making disappear.
wenakhḥidēm: And let us wipe them out
וְנַכְחִידֵם
Psalm 83:4 uses the same root for a plan to erase a people, showing the full force of the verb translated “cut off.”
בֹּשֶׁת
bōshet
GROWS FROM
בוש
Be ashamed, be confounded, or bear disgrace.
The phrase “shame of face” makes defeat visible: the king carries his humiliation back with him. This root places public disgrace between the army’s destruction and the killing in his own household.
ALSO GROWS
vayyēvōshū: They were ashamed
וַיֵּבֹשׁוּ
The same root appears for those confounded by failed hope in Job 6:20, echoing the king’s exposed defeat.
yēvōshū: They will be ashamed
יֵבֹשׁוּ
Psalm 31:17 uses this form for those brought to shame, showing disgrace as a consequence made visible.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, send forth, release, or let go.
The root שלח (shālaḥ) holds sending and releasing in the same word family. Here the messenger is sent into the camp, and the result is deadly: the shared root does not soften the verse’s violence.
ALSO GROWS
leshallaḥo: To send him away, release him
לְשַׁלְּחוֹ
In Exodus 9:2, this root is used for letting the people go; its release sense sits beside the dispatch of the messenger here.
vayeshalləḥēhu: And sent him forth
וַיְשַׁלְּחֵהוּ
Genesis 3:23 uses the same root for sending someone out, showing the root’s range from dispatch to release.
THE PATTERN
Military strength and rank cannot guarantee shelter from sudden death.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.THE THREAD
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.The same Hebrew root כחד (kḥd) appears here in “cut them off,” describing a plan to erase Israel as a people; in 2 Chronicles it names what happens to Assyria’s force. Hearing the same verb in both places reveals the full force of “cut off” and links an army’s disappearance with the attempted erasure of a nation.
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