What Does 2 Chronicles 26:16 Mean?
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.
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
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.THE KEY
The collapse begins before the temple breach: strength lifts the heart until its elevation is already pointed toward ruin.
THE MEANING
The verse shows strength turning into self-exaltation: his heart rises until that rising becomes ruin. The inward shift takes outward form when he enters the LORD’s temple to burn incense, an act the verse names as unfaithfulness toward his God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that growing stronger makes the heart safer or more entitled: strength can become the condition for self-exaltation and ruin.
THE ROOT
גָּבַהּ
gābah
GROWS FROM
גבה
To become high, rise, or be lofty.
“lifted high” in this verse is gābah. The Hebrew describes the heart becoming high, the same root used for height and loftiness. English can make “lifted up” sound like a passing feeling; the root shows an elevation that shapes what follows.
ALSO GROWS
gōbah: Height or loftiness.
גֹּבַהּ
In Proverbs 16:18, this same root describes the height that comes before destruction.
gābōah: High or lofty.
גָּבֹהַּ
This adjective carries the same root’s sense of being elevated, illuminating how the heart’s rise becomes the verse’s central movement.
לְהַשְׁחִית
lehashchit
GROWS FROM
שחת
To ruin, spoil, or corrupt.
“toward the pit” in this verse is lehashchit. This root can name ruin as a process of spoiling or corruption as well as its outcome. It keeps the verse’s destruction in view as the course toward which the lifted heart moves.
ALSO GROWS
shāḥat: To ruin, destroy, or spoil.
שָׁחַת
The verb preserves the sense of active ruin within the phrase translated “to his destruction.”
mashchit: A destroyer or one who brings ruin.
מַשְׁחִית
This related form shows the root’s range from the act of ruining to the one who carries it out.
וַיִּמְעַל
vayyim‘al
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act unfaithfully or deal treacherously.
“broke trust with” in this verse is vayyim‘al. The root gives “transgressed” the shade of unfaithfulness or sacrilege, a breach of trust rather than a merely abstract rule-crossing. The verse joins that breach to a concrete act: entering the temple to burn incense.
ALSO GROWS
mā‘al: To act unfaithfully or commit a breach.
מָעַל
This verbal form names the unfaithfulness the verse says is directed against the LORD.
me‘ilah: Treachery, trespass, or sacrilege.
מְעִילָה
This related noun gives a name to the breach that the verse expresses as an action.
THE PATTERN
When inward elevation treats strength as entitlement, the rise turns toward collapse and humbling.
Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.The lifted eyes of man shall be brought low, and the heights of men shall bow down, and the LORD alone shall be lifted high in that day.I tell you, this man went down to his house aligned, rather than the other, for everyone who lifts himself up will be brought low, and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.THE THREAD
Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.Proverbs uses the same root גבה (gābah, to be high) in גֹּבַהּ (gōbah, height or loftiness), rendered “haughty.” Here the heart rises; there, height comes before destruction and stumbling. The shared root reveals the recurring structure: self-elevation already carries the direction of its collapse.
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