What Does 2 Chronicles 6:37 Mean in the King James?
Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;
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
Return begins before captivity ends: first the heart comes back, then the person turns toward God.
THE MEANING
You can recognize what has gone wrong and turn toward God while still in the place that confines you. The verse links bringing the heart back with turning and praying; recognition is already movement. Captivity describes where you are, not the limit of your return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must first escape the place that holds you before you can turn back toward God.
THE ROOT
וְהֵשִׁיבוּ
weheshivu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back, return, or bring back.
“bethink themselves” in this verse is weheshivu. The verse uses a form of this root for bringing the heart back, then uses it again for turning toward God. One root links inward recognition and prayer: captivity is where the return begins, not a barrier to it.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To return or turn back.
שׁוּב
This root appears again in the verse as the captives turn toward God.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun preserves the verse’s idea that recognition can become a movement of return.
meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
Its opposite direction comes from the same root, showing that turning away and returning belong to one shared movement.
THE PATTERN
Return begins as an inward movement toward truth and continues as a turn toward God, even before circumstances change.
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;This parallel prayer uses the same Hebrew root for bringing the heart back and turning toward God. The repeated root reveals inward recognition and prayer as two movements of one return, even from captivity.
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