What Does 2 Chronicles 26:8 Mean?
And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah; and his name went out even to the entering in of Egypt, for he made himself exceedingly firm.
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 the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly.THE KEY
Uzziah’s name means “Yah is my strength,” yet this verse says he made himself strong, and his name went across borders.
THE MEANING
A name can travel farther than the person who bears it as influence grows. This verse holds two sources of strength side by side: Uzziah’s name points to Yah as strength, while the line attributes his rise to his own strengthening.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיק
heḥĕzîq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, make strong, hold fast.
“made himself firm” in this verse is heḥĕzîq. This root can describe being strong, making strong, or holding fast. Uzziah’s name, עֻזִּיָּהוּ (ʿUzzîyāhû, “Yah is my strength”), carries a related idea through the distinct root עזז (ʿ-z-z, be strong); that echo sets the name’s Godward strength beside the self-strengthening named here.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong.
חָזָק
This form appears in the next verse, where Uzziah’s strength marks a turning point in the account.
Ḥizqiyyāhû: Yah strengthens.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
This name carries strength as something Yah gives, sharpening the contrast with the self-strengthening described here.
וַיֵּלֶךְ
wayyēleḵ
GROWS FROM
הלך
Go, walk.
“went out” in this verse is wayyēleḵ. The Hebrew says, literally, that Uzziah’s name “went” as far as Egypt. “Spread abroad” hides the image of renown traveling outward, carried along with his growing strength.
ALSO GROWS
hālaḵ: Go or walk.
הָלַךְ
The verse uses this root’s ordinary motion to picture a name crossing distance.
hithallēḵ: Walk about, move through.
הִתְהַלֵּךְ
This related form makes the root’s sense of movement through space visible in the name’s expanding reach.
THE PATTERN
A name’s reach follows the strength behind it, while Scripture keeps exposing the source of that strength.
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and be a blessing.The nature of the LORD is a strong tower; the aligned one runs into it and is set on high.Therefore God also lifted him high, and favored him with a name above every name.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 root חזק (ḥ-z-q, to be strong or make strong) appears in “strengthened” here and “strong” in the connected verse. That next line reveals the hinge in this verse’s rising fame: strength fills the heart, and its direction turns toward destruction.
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