What Does 2 Chronicles 26:3 Mean?
Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
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
Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.THE KEY
Uzziah’s long reign carries a name that says “Yah is my strength,” within a city whose name carries the language of wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse holds authority within a named place and a family line, not as something abstract or self-contained. Uzziah’s name says “Yah is my strength,” while Jerusalem carries the language of wholeness. Your own time and place, too, are part of the shape of a life.
THE ROOT
עֻזִּיָּהוּ
ʿUzziyyahu
GROWS FROM
ע-ז-ז
ʿ-z-z
To be strong; strength or might.
“Uzziah” in this verse is ʿUzziyyahu. The name joins strength to Yah: the strength in the king’s name is not presented as self-originating. The verse places that name over a reign measured in decades.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This noun shares the strength-root carried in Uzziah’s name.
ʿaz: Strong, fierce.
עַז
This branch shows the root’s forceful quality, while Uzziah’s name locates strength in Yah.
יְרוּשָׁלַ
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁ-ל-ם
sh-l-m
Wholeness, completeness.
Jerusalem appears twice: it is where Uzziah’s reign unfolds and where his mother is from. The name carries the language of wholeness, placing both authority and family origin within that setting.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch gives the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name a living sense.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the idea of wholeness concrete in the place named twice in the verse.
וַיִּמְלֹךְ
wayyimlok
GROWS FROM
מ-ל-ךְ
m-l-k
To rule or be king.
“reign” in this verse is wayyimlok. The Hebrew for “reigned” belongs to the same root as “king” and “kingdom.” English separates the action, the person, and the realm; the root holds them together as parts of one structure of rule.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The ruler named by this branch is the one whose years of reigning the verse measures.
mamlakhah: Kingdom, realm.
מַמְלָכָה
This branch shows that reigning is joined to the domain in which rule takes place.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets a name carry a person’s nature or calling into the story.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.And I also say to you, You are Peter, the stone, and upon this bedrock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.THE THREAD
The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart leans its full weight on him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart leaps, and with my song I extend my hands to him.The word translated “strength” here shares the strength-root carried in Uzziah’s name. What his name compresses into “Yah is my strength,” this verse opens into a direct statement of trust and help.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us