What Does 2 Chronicles 2:9 Mean?
Even to set in place timber for me in abundance, for the house I am building will be great and wonderful.
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
Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.THE KEY
The abundance is not excess; it is proportioned to a house whose greatness is itself extraordinary.
THE MEANING
You stand within a work whose materials are gathered in abundance because the house taking shape is extraordinarily great. Its magnitude is already reflected in what is being prepared.
THE ROOT
וְהַפְלֵא
ve-hafle
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
To be extraordinary, marvelous, or beyond the ordinary.
“great and wonderful” in this verse is ve-hafle. The Hebrew marks the house as extraordinary, not merely pleasing or impressive. Beside “great,” it makes the house’s remarkable scale part of the claim.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder, marvel.
פֶּלֶא
The house is described with the language of something that inspires wonder.
nifla’ot: Wonders, marvelous deeds.
נִפְלָאוֹת
This related form shows the root naming what stands out as wondrous.
גָּדוֹל
gadol
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
To grow, increase, or become great.
“great and wonderful” in this verse is gadol. The word for “great” carries the sense of growth and increase. Joined with פלא, it describes a house expanded in scale and extraordinary in character.
ALSO GROWS
gedullah: Greatness, majesty.
גְּדֻלָּה
This noun expresses the state of being great, the scale attributed to the house.
migdal: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
This related word gives greatness a raised, spatial form.
בֹּנֶה
boneh
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
To build, establish, or bring into form.
“am building” in this verse is boneh. The building root also resonates with בֵּן, “son”: building can extend beyond a structure to the forming of a household. Here the house is still taking shape, and the abundant preparation already belongs to that act of building.
ALSO GROWS
nivneh: Is built, is established.
נִבְנֶה
This form shows the same root describing a thing receiving lasting form.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
The related word evokes the building and continuation of a household.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling’s scale becomes visible through the abundance, preparation, and fit of what is gathered into it.
For the material was enough for all the work of making it, and there was more left over.And the house, when it was in building, was built of whole stone, made ready before it was brought there, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
And the house, when it was in building, was built of whole stone, made ready before it was brought there, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.Both verses use בנה (banah, “build”): one describes abundant timber for an extraordinary house, while the other says its stones are made ready before they arrive. The shared root lets the preparation belong to the meaning of building itself; the house begins taking form before its materials are set in place.
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