What Does 2 Chronicles 32:6 Mean in the King James?
And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying,
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 verse joins practical readiness for war with words directed to the people’s hearts, showing that reassurance does not require danger to be gone.
THE MEANING
What meets you here is the pairing of practical readiness and words aimed at the heart. The threat remains real, yet inward reassurance has a place while action continues.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that comfort means denying danger: the captains are already set over the people when the heart-directed words are spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר עַל־לְבָבָם
waydabbēr ʿal-lĕḇāḇām
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; its related noun means word or matter.
“spake comfortably” in this verse is waydabbēr ʿal-lĕḇāḇām. The Hebrew phrase centers the address on their hearts; the KJV’s “comfortably” conveys its effect, while the Hebrew makes its destination vivid. The same root links speaking with davar, “word” or “matter,” so spoken words meet the people inwardly as well as publicly.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
This related noun shows the shared root behind the act of speaking and the words themselves.
mĕdabbēr: One who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the focus on a speaker whose words reach the people’s hearts.
רְחוֹב
rĕḥōḇ
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or spacious.
The Hebrew word for “street” grows from the root for breadth, naming an open or broad place. The people gather in that shared space while war remains the reason for their preparation.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥāḇ: Broad; wide.
רָחָב
This adjective carries the breadth audible in the word for the gathering place.
merḥāḇ: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This related noun makes the spatial sense explicit: the street is a place of openness.
THE PATTERN
Heart-directed words can steady people in distress without pretending their danger has disappeared.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.THE THREAD
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.Isaiah repeats the Hebrew phrase דַּבְּרוּ עַל־לֵב (dabbĕrū ʿal-lēb), “speak to the heart,” behind the address here. The shared wording reveals comfort as speech reaching the inward center, while Isaiah’s verse also names warfare.
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