What Does 2 Chronicles 14:5 Mean?
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-pillars, and the governance lay still before his face.
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
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.THE KEY
The quiet begins with a turning aside: the verb for “took away” makes clearing the movement that opens the kingdom to rest.
THE MEANING
What occupies your inner kingdom can be taken away, and quiet can spread through the whole realm. The verse’s movement is subtraction: the high places and sun-pillars leave the cities, and the kingdom rests before its ruler. The verb for removal also means “turn aside,” so quiet appears as space uncovered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that calm requires adding something new: here, quiet follows the removal of what occupies the kingdom’s cities.
THE ROOT
וַיָּסַר
wayyāsar
GROWS FROM
סור
To turn aside or depart; in this verb form, to remove.
“took away” in this verse is wayyāsar. The verb for taking away carries the motion of turning aside. English gives the act of removal, while the Hebrew also lets you see the movement that clears the space. Branches from this root hold both departure and removal together.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside; depart.
סוּר
This branch shows removal as a turning away from what had occupied the cities.
hēsîr: Remove; take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form names the act that clears the high places and sun-pillars from the realm.
וַתִּשְׁקֹט
vattishqot
GROWS FROM
שקט
To be quiet, rest, or remain undisturbed.
“lay still” in this verse is vattishqot. The Hebrew verb describes the whole kingdom as quiet, not only an individual feeling calm. Its root also forms a verb meaning to make quiet, holding both the settled state and its coming to rest within the same family.
ALSO GROWS
shaqat: Be quiet; rest undisturbed.
שָׁקַט
This is the root verb behind the kingdom’s quiet in this verse.
hishqit: Make quiet; still.
הִשְׁקִיט
This causative branch shows the same root can describe quiet being brought about as well as quiet being experienced.
THE PATTERN
Quiet is a shared condition that can settle across a land, kingdom, or common life.
And the land lay still forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat lay still, for his God gave him rest all around.For kings, and for all who stand above; that we may lead a still and whole life in all awe and weight.THE THREAD
So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat lay still, for his God gave him rest all around.The same Hebrew root שקט (shaqat, to be quiet or rest undisturbed) describes the quiet of a whole kingdom. Together, the verses reveal quiet as something a realm can experience, not only a feeling inside one person.
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