Humbling or subduing must be distinguished through the actual actor and response. The Lord's word to Solomon joins the named people's humbling, prayer, seeking and turning with His stated response for their land and temple setting.
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Full entry for כָּנַע (H3665) · Open the biblical lexicon
Humbling or subduing must be distinguished through the actual actor and response. The Lord's word to Solomon joins the named people's humbling, prayer, seeking and turning with His stated response for their land and temple setting.
The BSB source-word alignment has 36 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include humbled (3), were subdued (3), and you humbled yourself (2), humble himself (2), subdued them (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 26:41. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Chronicles (16), Judges (4), 1 Chronicles (3), Psalms (3).
Humbling or subduing must be distinguished through the actual actor and response. The Lord's word to Solomon joins the named people's humbling, prayer, seeking and turning with His stated response for their land and temple setting. Josiah hears the warning, weeps and humbles himself, while Manasseh earnestly seeks the Lord in his narrated captivity. Some northern people humble themselves and come to Jerusalem despite others' mockery.
Ahab's humbling delays the announced calamity in his own days but does not erase the stated later judgment. Psalm 106 also describes enemies subduing the people before the Lord hears their distress. Voluntary response and imposed subjection are therefore different contexts. Teach the actual turning and supplied mercy without identifying every humiliation as repentance, declaring another person's captivity spiritually necessary or promising modern nations automatic recovery through borrowing Solomon's named land promise.
Named covenant response, Josiah's tender hearing, Manasseh's petition, Passover participation, Ahab's delayed calamity and enemy subjection distinguish humbling contexts. Actual actors and qualified outcomes prevent a universal formula for present suffering or national recovery.
And if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
The Lord's word joins humbling, prayer, seeking and turning within His response to Solomon about the chosen temple and named people, retaining the surrounding conditions and place.
Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.
Josiah's tender heart, humbling, torn clothes and tears follow the warning he heard, and the specific reply concerns his not seeing the announced calamity.
Their enemies oppressed them and subdued them under their hand.
Enemies subdue the people under their hand, while the following verses retain rebellion, repeated rescue and the Lord hearing distress; imposed subjection is not itself voluntary repentance.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Physical submission (bending knee) becomes metaphor for total defeat, subjugation, and humiliation in warfare and covenant contexts.
Physical submission (bending knee) becomes metaphor for total defeat, subjugation, and humiliation in warfare and covenant contexts.
properly, to bend the knee; hence, to humiliate, vanquish BDB: be humble Usage: bring down (low), into subjection, under, humble (self), subdue.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 36 lexical occurrence verses.
כָּנַע is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The actor and outcome keep humbling from becoming a slogan. Josiah responds to a warning with a tender heart and tears, and receives a particular reply. Manasseh petitions in his narrated captivity, while some people respond to the Passover invitation despite others' scorn. Ahab's humbling has a specifically qualified effect on the timing of announced calamity rather than erasing judgment altogether.
The word to Solomon also names the people, temple and land setting instead of announcing a universal modern political formula. Psalm 106's enemies impose subjection, a different action from voluntary turning. Teach repentance and the Lord's stated hearing seriously while preserving these distinctions. Neither an inflicted humiliation nor a distressing circumstance establishes a present person's inward response, and no teacher gains permission to manufacture suffering, demand unsafe submission or promise national recovery through the verb alone.
2Kgs.22.19
The licensed Hebrew range includes being humble and being brought into subjection. The actual actor distinguishes self humbling from an enemy's imposed subduing. Read the surrounding prayer, turning or qualified response rather than assuming that any outward humiliation proves repentance or that every occurrence promises the same outcome.
James 4:8-12 calls readers to draw near, humble themselves before the Lord and avoid slandering or judging their neighbor. Read that Greek exhortation beside Josiah's humble hearing without equating lexical identities or inventing the same outcome for every person. The Lord's authority and the restriction on judging another must remain visible; the connection gives no present leader permission to impose humiliation or require dangerous submission.