What Does 2 Chronicles 6:36 Mean in the King James?
If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;
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
By placing “there is no man which sinneth not” inside the warning of exile, the verse makes captivity a human possibility no reader can dismiss as someone else’s fate.
THE MEANING
You are inside the human condition the verse names: no one moves through life without missing the mark. It holds the consequence plainly, God’s anger, being placed before enemies, and being carried captive to a land either near or far. Displacement remains a real vulnerability, not a condition reserved for strangers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that captivity marks only an unusually wicked person; the verse places the vulnerability within the shared human condition it names.
THE ROOT
יַחֶטְאוּ
yachate'u
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
To miss, fail, or go wrong, the seed behind sin as a missing.
The verse uses this root for both “they sin” and “sinneth not.” The parenthesis extends the same condition to every human being, tying the possible exile to a shared human vulnerability.
ALSO GROWS
chet: Sin; a missing.
חֵטְא
It names the condition that the verb “sin” expresses here.
chatta't: Sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root names both the failure and an offering associated with it.
וּנְתַתָּם
unetattam
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The phrase translated “deliver them over” carries the root natan, “give” or “place.” The verse names a painful transfer: they are placed before their enemies, who then take them captive.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This verb supplies the root sense of placing them before their enemies.
mattanah: A gift; something given.
מַתָּנָה
It shows the same root in the ordinary act of giving, sharpening the force of the transfer described here.
וְשָׁבוּם
veshavum
GROWS FROM
שבה
shavah
To take captive.
“carry them away captives” in this verse is veshavum. The verse names the enemies’ action directly: they take the people captive. The root also gives the word for a captor, linking the act of capture to the one who carries it out.
ALSO GROWS
shavah: To take captive.
שָׁבָה
This is the action described in the verse.
shoveh: A captor; one who takes captive.
שֹׁבֵה
It names the person who performs the action, making the captors explicit in the sentence.
THE PATTERN
No human stands outside the possibility of missing the mark, and its consequences can reach the life and land a person inhabits.
For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.THE THREAD
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.“Their sin” here, חַטָּאת (chatta’t, sin or missing), comes from the same חטא (chata, miss) root as “sin” in 6:36. The passage then names turning, release, and healing of the land, opening a path beyond the captivity described here.
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