What Does 2 Chronicles 33:6 Mean in the King James?
And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
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 refuses to separate the pursuit of hidden knowledge from the same hand sending children through fire.
THE MEANING
The verse places the search for omens, enchantments, and the dead beside the sending of children through fire, then names this course as evil in the LORD’s sight. It speaks now by exposing how the pursuit of hidden power can occupy the same life as violence against the vulnerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that seeking hidden knowledge is harmless by itself: here, it stands beside the direct harm of children.
THE ROOT
וְהֶעֱבִיר
veheʿĕvīr
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿāvar
Cross, pass over, go through. Here the verb is causative: he makes the children pass through the fire.
“caused ... to pass through” in this verse is veheʿĕvīr. The grammar keeps responsibility with the one directing the act; the children are its objects, not its agents. This root also forms words for what lies beyond and for transgression, holding physical crossing and boundary violation in one linguistic family.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: The region across or beyond.
עֵבֶר
This branch keeps the concrete motion of crossing audible in the verse’s verb.
ʿăvērāh: A violation or transgression.
עֲבֵרָה
The same root also names crossing a boundary as an offense, sharpening the force of this directed act.
וְעוֹנֵן
veʿōnēn
GROWS FROM
ענן
ʿānan
The biblical verb means to practice divination or read omens; its proposed relation to the word for cloud is uncertain.
English “observed times” can sound like watching a calendar, while the Hebrew names divination or omen-reading. The same consonants appear in the word for cloud, sometimes linked to reading signs in clouds, though that connection is debated.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānān: A cloud or cloud-cover.
עָנָן
This shared form suggests a possible link between omen-reading and signs in the sky, while the precise derivation remains uncertain.
meʿōnēn: One who practices divination or reads omens.
מְעוֹנֵן
This related form makes clear that the verse names a practice of seeking signs, rather than merely observing the passage of time.
THE PATTERN
The pursuit of hidden power and the treatment of vulnerable lives belong in the same moral account.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?THE THREAD
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,The same causative verb for making a child pass through fire appears in both verses. Deuteronomy places that violence beside divination in a single list, opening the current verse’s practices as one account rather than unrelated details.
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