Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 18:10
Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Zedekiah son of Chenaanah addresses King Ahab, Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and the assembled prophets at the threshing floor near Samaria’s gate. He makes his declaration while holding a prop he fashioned himself.
The words — The text highlights קַרְנֵי בַרְזֶל (karnei varzel), meaning “iron horns,” and כֹּה (koh), rendered “thus.” Zedekiah uses these terms to physically demonstrate and verbally authenticate a proclamation of total defeat for the Arameans.
The thread — This pattern of self-appointed prophets delivering unauthorized messages of peace and victory appears in Jeremiah 23:17, 23:21, and 23:25, where false messengers claim divine commission without being sent.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to test prophetic claims against the source of authority rather than accepting dramatic props or popular consensus. It requires distinguishing between messages that originate from human invention and those that carry genuine divine mandate.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the Lord, With these thou shalt push Syria until they be consumed.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 23:17 They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’
- Jeremiah 23:21 I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
- Jeremiah 23:25 “I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’
- Jeremiah 23:31 “Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’”
- Jeremiah 27:2 This is what the LORD said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck.
- Jeremiah 28:2 “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
- Jeremiah 28:10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.
- Jeremiah 29:21 This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.
- Ezekiel 13:7 Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken?
- Ezekiel 22:28 Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.