What Does 2 Chronicles 1:16 Mean?
And Solomon had horses bought out of Egypt, and linen thread; the king's traders took the linen thread at a price.
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 Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.THE KEY
The language of “going out from Egypt” can name deliverance, yet here what goes out is horses entering the king’s supply chain.
THE MEANING
Royal prosperity becomes tangible: horses come from Egypt, and linen passes through merchants at a price. The verse shows power gathering strength and status through what it imports and purchases. Goods leave a place named for constriction, but their movement alone does not release anyone.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
ts-r-r
To bind or press into straits; constriction.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitsrayim. Mitsrayim carries the image of “the two narrows,” a place of constriction. Here goods move out of that narrowness into royal power, while the movement of goods is not itself deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
metsar: A narrow place, strait, or tight spot.
מֵצַר
This related word lets Egypt carry the image of constriction as well as the name of a place.
tsarah: Distress or trouble; being in a tight place.
צָרָה
It shows how the root’s physical image of narrowness extends into the experience of distress.
מוֹצָא
motza
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
“brought out” in this verse is motza. This root also names the going out from Egypt, yet here the thing going out is horses for the king. The shared language holds both release and commercial movement without making them the same.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi'ah: Going out or an exit.
יְצִיאָה
It keeps the verse’s “brought out” tied to the broader language of departure.
Yetziat Mitsrayim: The going out from Egypt; the Exodus.
יְצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם
The same root used for Israel’s departure from Egypt describes the horses’ departure here, sharpening the contrast between liberation and trade.
THE PATTERN
What a person or ruler accumulates for security can reveal where that security rests.
But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor turn the people back to Egypt in order to multiply horses. For the LORD has said to you, You shall not again turn back by this way.Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who lean upon horses and lean their full weight upon chariots, because they are many, and upon horsemen, because they have grown very strong. They do not look to the Set-Apart One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!Charge those who are rich in this age, that they not be lifted high in mind, nor set their hope on uncertain riches, but upon the living God, who holds out to us richly all things to feast on.THE THREAD
But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor turn the people back to Egypt in order to multiply horses. For the LORD has said to you, You shall not again turn back by this way.The two verses pair horses with Egypt, making the source of royal strength visible. Deuteronomy places a boundary around that pairing, so the import in Chronicles sits beside a question about what kingship is permitted to gather.
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