What Does 2 Chronicles 26:15 Mean?
And he made in Jerusalem devices made by thinking hands, to be on the towers and upon the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name went out far, for he was wondrously helped, until he grew strong.
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 he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.THE KEY
The Hebrew names the engines from the root of thought and design: violence here is thought made into a machine.
THE MEANING
Your thought can become an instrument that extends force: here, ingenious devices launch arrows and great stones. Your name, your nature as others encounter it, spreads with strength the verse describes as help received. The line ends at strength’s arrival, while the next verse shows that arrival is a hinge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strength is wholly self-made: the verse locates even public power in help received.
THE ROOT
חִשְּׁבוֹנוֹת
chishbonot
GROWS FROM
חשב
chashav
To think, reckon, or devise.
“made by thinking hands” in this verse is chishbonot. The word rendered engines belongs to the family of thinking, planning, and devising. The phrase translated invented by cunning men repeats that same root: the weapon is a thought made solid, carrying its maker’s design into the world.
ALSO GROWS
machashevet: Design, devising, or a plan.
מַחֲשֶׁבֶת
This form appears in the verse’s phrase for the devising behind the engines, making the link between thought and weapon explicit.
choshev: One who devises or crafts.
חֹשֵׁב
This is the verse’s word for the skilled designer; the engines and their makers share the root of thought.
לְהֵעָזֵר
lehe'azer
GROWS FROM
עזר
azar
To help, aid, or support.
“helped” in this verse is lehe'azer. The verse places Uzziah’s growing strength inside a word-family of aid: his power is described as help received, not as self-origin alone. Help and helper belong to the same seed, so his growing reach remains connected to support beyond himself.
ALSO GROWS
ezer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
This noun makes the root’s central idea concrete: strength here grows in the presence of help.
ozer: A helper, one who gives aid.
עֹזֵר
This form names the giver of help, keeping the relationship within the same root family.
חָזָק
chazaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
chazaq
To be strong, become firm, or prevail.
“until he grew strong” in this verse is chazaq. This root can describe both becoming strong and strengthening something, placing Uzziah’s condition within a larger process of gaining force. The next verse repeats the root when he is strong, making this verse’s final word the next verse’s turning point.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: To become strong, prevail, or grow firm.
חָזַק
This verb names the process that brings Uzziah to the strength at which the verse stops.
chizzeq: To strengthen, make firm, or reinforce.
חִזֵּק
This form shows the same root can name the act of adding strength as well as the state of being strong.
THE PATTERN
A designed object carries an intention beyond the mind and extends its maker’s reach.
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its head in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered across the face of the whole earth.To devise designs, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze.For a certain man named Demetrius, a silver-beater, who made silver shrines for Artemis, provided the craftsmen with no small gain.THE THREAD
But when he grew strong, his heart was lifted high toward the pit; for he broke trust with the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to make smoke rise upon the altar of incense.The same root חזק (chazaq) closes this verse with Uzziah’s strength and opens the next with “when he was strong.” The echo makes strength the hinge: the help that carries him to power meets the moment his heart rises toward destruction.
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