What Does 2 Chronicles 11:3 Mean?
Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,
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
Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,THE KEY
The verse names a bounded place around “all Israel,” while Rehoboam’s name carries the widening of a people.
THE MEANING
A spoken word can name a specific hearer and still hold a whole people within its reach. Rehoboam’s name carries the image of a people widened, while Judah carries the root of praise. Person, people, and praise all sit inside the address.
THE ROOT
רְחַבְעָם
Reḥavʿam
GROWS FROM
רחב
Be broad or spacious; joined with עַם (ʿam), “people,” the name carries the sense “the people are widened.”
Rehoboam’s name holds widening inside this tightly bounded address. The phrase “all Israel” is named within Judah and Benjamin, while the name at its center carries the image of a people made broad.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Broad, wide, spacious.
רָחָב
Its sense of breadth gives the name Rehoboam its image of a people widened.
merḥav: Open space, a broad place.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes the root’s widening spatial: breadth is room to move within.
יְהוּדָה
Yehudah
GROWS FROM
ידה
Praise or give thanks; Judah’s name is associated with this root.
Judah carries the sound and sense of praise within the address. It is more than a place name here: its name brings acknowledgment into the way the people are named.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: Praise, give thanks, acknowledge.
יָדָה
This verb is the root associated with Judah’s name, bringing praise into the verse’s naming of the place.
todah: Thanksgiving, praise.
תּוֹדָה
This related word shows how the root’s act of acknowledgment can become an expression of thanks.
אֱמֹר
Emor
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak, utter.
“Speak / saying” in this verse is Emor. The command begins with emor, “speak,” and closes with leʾmor, “saying,” repeating the same root at both edges. The Hebrew holds the act of speaking and the words delivered within one verbal family, where English uses two forms.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: Utterance, saying.
אִמְרָה
This noun carries the same root into the spoken content itself.
maʾamar: Saying, statement.
מַאֲמָר
It shows the root can name not only the act of saying but also what is said.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word makes its reach visible by naming the hearers it gathers.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for to all that I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, Men of Judaea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and lend your ear to my words.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Abram, Go away from your land, from your land of birth, and from your father's house, to the land I will let you see.Genesis 12:1 uses the same root, אמר (amar), for “had said.” In both verses, speech reaches a named hearer and opens the way for what follows.
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