What Does 2 Chronicles 17:17 Mean?
And from Benjamin, Eliada, a mighty man of strength, and with him armed men with bow and shield, two hundred thousand.
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 of Benjamin; Eliada a mighty man of valour, and with him armed men with bow and shield two hundred thousand.THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “mighty” grows from a verb meaning “prevail,” so strength takes embodied, armed form in this verse.
THE MEANING
The verse makes force visible as a body of people: Eliada, armed men, bows, shields, and two hundred thousand. Benjamin means “son of the right hand,” placing this assembled force within a name that carries the image of the strong hand. The text gives strength concrete shape through people, tools, and scale.
THE ROOT
גִּבּוֹר
gibbor
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
Be strong; prevail.
“mighty man of strength” in this verse is gibbor. The word translated “mighty” carries the root idea of prevailing. The same seed forms both a verb for prevailing and a noun for strength, joining capacity with the act of overcoming.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: Be strong; prevail.
גָּבַר
This verb makes explicit the action held within “mighty”: strength that prevails.
gevurah: Might; strength; heroic power.
גְּבוּרָה
This noun shows the same root naming strength as a quality, the capacity embodied here by Eliada.
THE PATTERN
Collective strength takes shape through people made ready and equipped for a task.
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them to Dan.They who built on the wall, and they who bore burdens, with those who lifted the load, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand gripped a weapon.And he called to himself two of the rulers of a hundred, saying, "Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen, at the third hour of the night."THE THREAD
And the messenger of the LORD let himself be seen by him, and said to him, The LORD is with you, you mighty man of strength.Judges uses the same Hebrew phrase, gibbor chayil, translated “mighty man of valour” here. The phrase is spoken directly to Gideon, showing it can name a person as mighty and valiant before the verse describes any deed.
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