What Does 2 Chronicles 11:9 Mean?

And Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,

2 Chronicles 11:9 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,

THE KEY

Azekah’s name carries the image of a boundary dug around what is meant to be held.

THE MEANING

Protection has a map: it is attached to named places, not left as an abstraction. Azekah adds the image of an enclosure around what is held.

THE ROOT

עֲזֵקָה

ʿAzeqah

GROWS FROM

עזק

ʿ-z-q

To dig around, enclose, or fence.

Azekah’s name is associated with ⁨עזק⁩, a root that gives the place a sense of enclosure. Isaiah uses the same root for fencing a vineyard, so the name holds an image of a boundary drawn around what is being kept.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāzaq: To dig around or enclose; to fence.

עָזַק

This verb supplies the boundary image carried by the place-name Azekah.

ʿAzeqah: Azekah; a place-name associated with enclosure.

עֲזֵקָה

The city’s name makes its boundary-like character part of the landscape named in the verse.

THE PATTERN

Protection takes shape in boundaries and structures that hold what is within them.

And Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, walled cities.

2 Chronicles 11:10 · SDVThe neighboring list also names places whose protection is expressed through their fortification.

The nature of the LORD is a strong tower; the aligned one runs into it and is set on high.

Proverbs 18:10 · SDVSafety is pictured as entering a strong structure that shelters those within it.

And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds breathed and fell against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been laid on the rock.

Matthew 7:25 · SDVA structure holds against pressure when it has a firm foundation.

THE THREAD

And he dug around it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the red vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and hollowed out a winepress within it. And he waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth stinking grapes.

Isaiah 5:2 · SDV

Isaiah uses ⁨עזק⁩ (ʿ-z-q) in “fenced it” for enclosing a vineyard. That same root is associated with Azekah’s name, linking the city to the image of a boundary around what is cultivated and kept.

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