What Does 2 Chronicles 27:5 Mean?
He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and grew mighty against them. In that year the children of Ammon gave him a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon bring back to him, both in the second year and in the third.
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
He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.THE KEY
The word rendered “pay” carries the sense of “return,” so victory becomes a recurring flow of wealth from the defeated to the victor.
THE MEANING
Here, power outlasts the battle: it continues as silver, wheat, and barley transferred to Jotham year after year. The text measures the cost in material goods and names the transfer across three years.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A victory is only a moment of force; here it becomes a sustained claim on the defeated people’s resources.
THE ROOT
הֵשִׁיבוּ
hēshîvû
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn back, return.
“bring back to him” in this verse is hēshîvû. The verb translated as “pay” literally carries the sense of returning something. The tribute is pictured as wealth flowing back to the victor, and its repetition makes that return last beyond the battle.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turned back, returned.
שָׁב
This form makes the underlying motion plain: what goes out can come back.
meshûvah: Turning away, backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can describe a turning in the wrong direction, showing how much depends on what, or whom, the movement returns toward.
וַיֶּחֱזַק
vayyeḥĕzaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm, prevail.
“prevailed” in this verse is vayyeḥĕzaq. The verse describes Jotham as becoming strong over the Ammonites. This root also carries the sense of strengthening or holding fast, so the victory becomes a grip with material consequences that continue for years.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This branch shows the quality behind the verb: the prevailing comes from strength established over another.
ḥizzēq: Strengthened, made strong.
חִזֵּק
The same root can describe strength being applied or reinforced, echoing how the victory sustains a continuing claim.
THE PATTERN
Rule becomes materially visible through the goods and dues it requires.
And Mesha king of Moab was a keeper of sheep, and he gave back to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool.And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have missed the mark. Turn back from me. Whatever you place upon me, I will carry. And the king of Assyria placed upon Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.Therefore give back to all what is owed; the carried to whom the carrying is owed, the toll to whom the toll is owed, the trembling to whom trembling is owed, the weight to whom weight is owed.THE THREAD
And Mesha king of Moab was a keeper of sheep, and he gave back to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool.The verb rendered as “rendered” is הֵשִׁיב (hēshîv, “returned”), from שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back, return”); both passages describe tribute as goods returned to a victor. The parallel opens Jotham’s payment as part of a recurring pattern in which political power moves wealth back toward the ruler.
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