What Does 2 Chronicles 26:4 Mean?

And he did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did.

2 Chronicles 26:4 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did.

THE KEY

The word translated “right” means straight: the verse pictures a life aligned with what is seen in the LORD’s eyes, following a pattern received from a parent.

THE MEANING

Your conduct takes shape along a path that can be inherited, and its measure is whether it is straight in the LORD’s sight. What you receive from those before you can continue through what you do now.

THE ROOT

הַיָּשָׁר

ha-yashar

GROWS FROM

ישר

To be straight, level, or upright.

“Right” carries the image of straightness: a life that holds its line in the LORD’s sight. The same root describes making a path straight, linking rightness with the way a person walks.

ALSO GROWS

yashar: Straight, upright.

יָשָׁר

This is the root’s basic sense, present in the verse’s description of what Uzziah did.

yĕyaššēr: Make straight; direct.

יְיַשֵּׁר

Proverbs uses this form for God directing a person’s paths, connecting rightness with the path itself.

THE PATTERN

A life’s straightness is measured by the LORD’s sight, and its pattern can be carried forward through what is inherited.

And Asa did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

1 Kings 15:11 · SDVLike Uzziah, Asa is described as doing what is right in the LORD’s eyes while following a pattern associated with his father.

In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.

Proverbs 3:6 · SDVThe Hebrew word translated “direct” comes from the same root as “right”: straightness describes both the conduct and the path.

And he said to them, You are the ones who align yourselves before the faces of people, but God knows your hearts, for what is lifted up among people is a stench before the face of God.

Luke 16:15 · SDVThe verse distinguishes human approval from the measure of what is seen in God’s sight.

THE THREAD

In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.

Proverbs 3:6 · SDV

“Right” here is yashar, straight or upright; “direct” in Proverbs comes from the same root and means to make straight. The shared word links rightness with a path held straight in the LORD’s sight.

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