What Does 2 Chronicles 1:15 Mean?
And the king gave silver and gold in Jerusalem like stones, and cedars he gave in abundance like the sycamores that are in the lowland.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the king made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the vale for abundance.THE KEY
Abundance has arrived when gold no longer stands apart from the ground, but is as common to the eye as stone.
THE MEANING
This verse lets the reader see provision at a scale where precious metal belongs to the landscape and cedar is as common as lowland sycamore. Its image loosens the link between worth and rarity: fullness can make what was exceptional feel near and ordinary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that something can be valuable only while it remains scarce or distant; here, value remains even when abundance makes treasure commonplace.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“gave silver and gold” in this verse is wayyitten. The Hebrew verb carries the shades of giving and setting in place beneath the KJV’s “made.” The repeated verb frames the metals and cedar as an arrangement laid visibly into Jerusalem’s life.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The same verb frames both the precious metals and the cedar as what is set in Jerusalem.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root lets the sense of giving sound beneath the materials being set in place.
לָרֹב
lā-rōv
GROWS FROM
רבב
To become many, multiply, or abound.
The Hebrew word carries the sense of multitude: abundance is multiplication until precious materials fill the scene. Gold and silver meet the eye like stones, while cedar meets it like the sycamores of the lowland.
ALSO GROWS
rōv: Abundance or multitude.
רֹב
This is the word used for the abundance that makes the cedar common in the landscape.
revavah: A myriad or ten thousand.
רְבָבָה
The same root’s language of great number echoes the verse’s picture of wealth beyond scarcity.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Whole, complete, sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the sound and pattern of shalom, wholeness, and the verse places extraordinary abundance there. The city becomes an image of fullness in which even precious materials belong to the ordinary scene.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name carries this pattern of wholeness as the verse pictures its abundance.
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch gives the root’s sense of completeness, which the verse pictures as material fullness.
THE PATTERN
Overflow makes precious goods ordinary, while life’s beauty exceeds even royal splendor.
And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold grow, and all that you have multiplies;And the king gave silver in Jerusalem as stones, and he gave cedars as the sycamores that are in the lowland, for abundance.But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his weight was wrapped as one of these.THE THREAD
Wisdom and knowing is given to you; and I will give you riches, and possessions, and weight, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.Both verses use נתן (natan), meaning give, set, or place: the earlier verse says riches are given, and this verse repeats the root as those riches take visible form. The abundance is the shape of what has been given.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us