What Does Zechariah 7:2 Mean in the King James?
When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,
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
Bethel, the house of God, can be heard as the sender, making prayer a community’s appeal carried toward the LORD’s face.
THE MEANING
Your need can be carried toward God as a shared appeal, and the Hebrew names that appeal as seeking favor. Prayer here is an act of sending: the community’s concern takes direction toward the presence it seeks. The LORD is addressed as a face to encounter.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyišlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
š-l-ḥ
Send forth, send away, release, or stretch out.
English “sent” can sound like movement alone, while שׁלח also carries the sense of release and extension. Here a community’s concern is carried beyond itself toward God’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent, dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
The delegates carry the community’s appeal outward as sent ones.
mishloach: Sending forth, reach, extension.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
The root can describe how far something reaches; the community extends its appeal toward the LORD.
פְּנֵי
pənê
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
Turn or face toward.
The Hebrew phrase is literally an appeal toward the LORD’s face. “Before” retains the sense of presence, while the face-language makes the encounter more direct: the request is oriented toward someone.
ALSO GROWS
pānîm: Face, presence, surface.
פָּנִים
The prayer is directed toward the LORD’s presence, not merely toward a place.
pānāh: Turn, face toward.
פָּנָה
The petition’s direction echoes the root’s movement of turning toward another.
לְחַלּוֹת
leḥallot
GROWS FROM
חלה
ḥ-l-h
Be weak or ill; in the Piel stem, entreat or seek favor.
“to pray” in this verse is leḥallot. The verb translated “pray” means to entreat or seek favor, within a root family that also names sickness and weakness. The petition carries need openly: its approach is an appeal arising from vulnerability.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoli: Sickness, illness.
חֹלִי
This branch gives the root family a texture of need that illuminates the appeal.
maḥaleh: Illness, disease.
מַחֲלֶה
The same root family names a condition of weakness alongside the verb for seeking favor.
THE PATTERN
Seeking God’s face moves in two directions: a community sends its plea toward God, and those who encounter him are sent outward.
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Zechariah’s “sent” and Isaiah’s “send” share the Hebrew root שׁלח (shalach). Zechariah shows a plea carried toward the LORD’s face; Isaiah shows the answering movement outward from that presence.
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