What Does 2 Chronicles 29:17 Mean?
Now they began on the first day of the first month to set apart, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD. So they set apart the house of the LORD in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
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
Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.THE KEY
Setting apart moves through measured stages: reaching the porch on day eight is part of the work, while the house is complete on day sixteen.
THE MEANING
The verse gives your present work a measured shape: setting apart reaches the threshold before the whole house is complete. Progress at the threshold is real, and completion has its own time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reaching a threshold means the whole work must already be finished.
THE ROOT
לְקַדֵּשׁ
leqaddēš
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
Set apart, dedicate, consecrate.
“set apart” in this verse is leqaddēš. The same seed appears in the verb for setting apart, the word for set-apartness, and the word for sanctuary. The verse links the ongoing work to the house’s identity as a space dedicated to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
qōdeš: Set-apartness; something set apart.
קֹדֶשׁ
It names the quality the work of sanctifying brings into view.
qādōš: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
It describes the state of what is dedicated to God.
miqdāš: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
It joins the act in this verse to the house as a dedicated space.
THE PATTERN
Setting apart unfolds through deliberate acts and can continue until it reaches the whole space or person.
You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the dwelling and all that is within it, and set it apart with all its vessels, and it shall be set apart.For by one offering he has made complete without break those being set apart.And may the God of wholeness himself set you apart through and through, and may your whole breath, living soul, and body be kept blameless until the presence of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the dwelling and all that is within it, and set it apart with all its vessels, and it shall be set apart.Exodus 40:9 uses the same Hebrew root, ק־ד־שׁ (q-d-sh, set apart), for hallowing the tabernacle and calling it holy. Together, the verses link the act of setting apart with the space that carries that identity.
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