What Does 2 Chronicles 29:18 Mean?
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of the burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of the bread of the face with all its vessels.
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
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.THE KEY
The cleansing reaches both the altar of offering and the table of provision, clearing the whole space where people approach and receive.
THE MEANING
Restoration reaches the whole house: the altar, every vessel, and the table all stand within the clearing. The verse moves from offering to provision, showing that no part of this shared sacred life is peripheral.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The altar is the only part of the sacred space that matters.
THE ROOT
טִהַרְנוּ
ṭiharnu
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
To be clean or pure; to cleanse.
“cleansed” in this verse is ṭiharnu. The same root describes both the act of cleansing and the state of being clean. Here the clearing extends through the house and its furnishings, so no part of the space is left outside the restoration.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhôr: Clean, pure.
טָהוֹר
This related form names the condition the cleansing brings about.
ṭāhŏrāh: Purification, cleanness.
טָהֳרָה
This noun carries the same root into the process or state of purification.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The altar’s name grows from the act performed there: sacrifice. Cleansing it reaches the concrete place of offering, not only the surrounding house.
ALSO GROWS
zebaḥ: Sacrifice, sacrificial offering.
זֶבַח
This noun names what is brought to the altar.
zōvēaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
This form names the person performing the act associated with the altar.
שֻׁלְחָן
shulḥan
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or stretch out.
The table’s name carries the sense of sending or extending provision outward. Its cleansing belongs alongside the altar’s: the verse includes both the place of offering and the place where provision is set out.
ALSO GROWS
shālaḥ: To send, send forth, or release.
שָׁלַח
This verb shares the root and gives the table’s name its sense of extension.
Shiloach: Sent forth; a sent stream or watercourse.
שִׁלֹחַ
This related name carries the root’s sense of what is sent out and reaches others.
THE PATTERN
Restoration clears the whole place of encounter, reaching its furnishings and the person within it.
For on that day the priest makes a covering for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your shortcomings before the LORD.Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steady breath within me.And to those who sold the doves he said, Lift these things from here. Do not make my Father's house a house of trade.THE THREAD
Remove my falling short with hyssop, and I am clean; tread me, and I am whiter than snow.Both verses draw on טהר (ṭ-h-r), “to be clean or pure”: here it names the cleansing of the whole worship space, while the psalm uses it for the speaker’s own cleanness. Together they extend the same clearing from altar, vessels, and table to the person.
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