What Does 2 Chronicles 6:22 Mean in the King James?
If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
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
An oath carries a neighbor’s disputed wrong into God’s presence, where the matter becomes answerable.
THE MEANING
When harm between neighbors is disputed, the oath comes before the altar and the matter stands before God. Sworn speech carries weight because a person’s word is answerable there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A wrong between neighbors has no consequence beyond the relationship itself.
THE ROOT
אָלָה
ʾālāh
GROWS FROM
אלה
to invoke an oath or curse
The English “oath” can sound like a formal statement, but אָלָה also names an imprecation or curse: the sworn word carries consequences inside it. The same root appears in the verb “to make him swear,” placing the man under that weight rather than merely asking his opinion.
ALSO GROWS
ʾālāh: oath; imprecation or curse
אָלָה
The same noun names the oath brought before the altar and shows the consequences bound up in the sworn word.
lehaʾaloto: to make him swear; to adjure him
לְהַאֲלֹתוֹ
This form of the same root shows the person being placed under the oath’s weight.
יֶחֱטָא
yeḥĕṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
to miss, err, or do wrong
The offense is a missing, a failure in relation to one’s neighbor, rather than a vague moral label. The same word-family also names the sin offering, keeping wrongdoing and its ritual answer linguistically close in a verse that brings the matter before an altar.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: missing; wrongdoing
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the sense of a concrete failure that has occurred between neighbors.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: missing or wrongdoing; in ritual contexts, sin offering
חַטָּאת
This branch links the failure named by the root with the altar’s vocabulary of response.
THE PATTERN
When a claim between people needs resolution, an oath places its truth under accountability before God.
Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.THE THREAD
Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew term אָלָה (ʾālāh, an oath that invokes a curse) alongside “covenant.” That pairing makes the oath before the altar feel binding: sworn speech is joined to a promise and its consequences before God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us