What Does Habakkuk 2:20 Mean in the King James?
But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
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 whole earth’s hush is the answer to a presence already inhabiting the LORD’s set-apart temple.
THE MEANING
The LORD is present in his set-apart temple, and the whole earth falls silent before him. The silence is the earth’s recognition of a presence already here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that silence means divine absence; the verse places the LORD already in his temple as the whole earth falls quiet.
THE ROOT
קָדְשׁוֹ
qodshō
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart, consecrate.
“holy” in this verse is qodshō. The verse locates the LORD in the temple of his set-apartness, so the hush meets a presence already there. This root points to a space belonging to the divine, and the whole earth grows quiet before that reality.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart, consecrated.
קָדוֹשׁ
It describes what is marked as belonging to the divine.
qōdesh: Set-apartness, sacredness, or a sacred place.
קֹדֶשׁ
It names the set-apartness expressed in “his holy temple.”
miqdāsh: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
It shows the same root naming a place set apart for divine presence.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD’s presence is disclosed, the created world falls quiet before him.
Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.THE THREAD
Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.The command הַס (has, “be silent”) is the same in both verses, and Zechariah describes the LORD rising from מְעוֹן קָדְשׁוֹ (meʿōn qodshō, “his holy habitation”). The repeated words reveal the hush as the earth’s answer to the LORD’s presence in his set-apart dwelling.
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