What Does 2 Chronicles 27:6 Mean?
So Jotham grew strong, for he set his ways firm before the LORD his God.
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
So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.THE KEY
Jotham, יוֹתָם (Yotam), “YHWH is complete”, becomes strong as his ways are made firm before YHWH, binding strength to a path shaped by divine wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now: your strength takes shape as your lived path is made firm before God. Jotham’s name, יוֹתָם (Yotam), means “YHWH is complete,” and the verse’s movement from prepared ways to might echoes a life ordered before that wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that might proves self-sufficiency; here strength is tied to a path prepared before God.
THE ROOT
הֵכִין
hekin
GROWS FROM
כון
kun
To be firm or established; in this verb form, to make firm, set in place, or prepare.
“set firm” in this verse is hekin. “Prepared” carries the sense of making a way firm and settled. The verse links Jotham’s strength to the ordering of his path before God, not merely to a plan he makes for himself.
ALSO GROWS
nakhon: Firm, established, or secure.
נָכוֹן
This related form shows the settled condition toward which preparation moves.
makon: A fixed place, dwelling, or foundation.
מָכוֹן
The same root can describe a place made stable, giving “prepared” the feel of setting a life on firm ground.
וַיִּתְחַזֵּק
vayitchazzeq
GROWS FROM
חזק
chazaq
To be strong or firm, strengthen, or take hold.
“grew strong” in this verse is vayitchazzeq. The form describes Jotham becoming strong or strengthening himself. The root holds strength together with firmness and grasp: might here is not only force, but the capacity to hold steady.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Strong or firm.
חָזָק
This adjective makes visible the firmness contained in “became mighty.”
chizzeq: To strengthen or reinforce.
חִזֵּק
This related verb presents strength as something made firm, echoing the prepared ways in the verse.
דְּרָכָיו
derakhav
GROWS FROM
דרך
darak
To tread, step, or travel along.
“Ways” are not only abstract principles; the root evokes a track made by walking. Preparing his ways means making the course of his lived steps firm before God.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A way, path, or course.
דֶּרֶךְ
This familiar branch names the route made by repeated steps.
darak: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the physical action held inside the idea of a “way.”
THE PATTERN
A life grows firm as its path is set in relation to God.
Level the track of your feet, and let all your ways stand firm.The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.He is like a human who built a house, dug deep, and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood rose, the river burst against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.THE THREAD
Level the track of your feet, and let all your ways stand firm.“Established” translates a form of כון (kun), the same root behind “prepared” in 2 Chronicles 27:6. Proverbs makes the connection explicit: the way made firm is the path prepared.
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