What Does 2 Chronicles 2:14 Mean?
The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilled to carve in gold, and in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson, also to carve every manner of engraving, and to devise every design which will be given to him, with your skilled ones, and with the skilled ones of my lord David your father.
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
The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “device” means a thought or design: the verse shows thought passing into material through skilled hands.
THE MEANING
Here, understanding moves through hands into gold, silver, stone, timber, and cloth. Thought takes different forms without losing its design, and individual skill meets other skilled hands in shared work.
THE ROOT
מַחֲשָׁבֶת
machashevet
GROWS FROM
ח־ש־ב
Think, reckon, devise.
“devise every design” in this verse is machashevet. The word translated “device” also means a thought or design. The verse links making with thinking: the design is already present in the thought before it takes shape in a material.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: Think, reckon, devise.
חָשַׁב
The verb behind the design links conceiving a work with considering or reckoning it.
machashavah: Thought, plan, design.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This noun shows how the root’s act of thinking becomes a conceived plan, the sense carried by “device.”
יוֹדֵעַ לַעֲשׂוֹת
yodea la'asot
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
Know, perceive through encounter.
“skilful to work” in this verse is yodea la'asot. The Hebrew says “knowing to do.” Skill here is knowledge that has met the work itself and can move across materials, not information held at a distance.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
This verb names knowing through encounter, the kind of knowledge that can guide a hand at work.
da'at: Knowledge, perception.
דַּעַת
The related noun makes clear that practical skill belongs to a wider field of knowing and perceiving.
לְפַתֵּחַ
lefatteach
GROWS FROM
פ־ת־ח
Open.
“carve every manner of engraving” in this verse is lefatteach. The verb for engraving comes from the root meaning “open,” which also gives the Hebrew word for an opening or doorway. Engraving can be seen as opening a surface so a design appears through what is cut away.
ALSO GROWS
patach: Open.
פָּתַח
This is the verb’s basic root sense, present beneath the work of engraving.
petach: Opening, doorway.
פֶּתַח
This related noun shows the same root carrying the idea of an opening into a new form.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom becomes visible when thought is shaped into material work and offered within shared craft.
To devise designs, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze.I, Wisdom, pitch my tent with shrewdness, and I find knowledge of plans.As each has received a gift, serve it to one another as good stewards of the many-colored favor of God.THE THREAD
Many are the works you make, O LORD my God, the wonders, and your plans toward us. They cannot be laid in rows before you. If I would recount them and speak them, they are more than can be numbered.“Device” here and “thoughts” in the Psalm come from the same Hebrew root, ח־ש־ב (ch-sh-b), carrying the sense of thought or design. The Psalm’s thoughts are “to us-ward,” connecting human making with a thought already directed toward the reader.
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