What Does 2 Chronicles 29:20 Mean?
Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
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 Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “went up” also names a burnt offering, so the procession to the LORD’s house already carries the language of what rises to God.
THE MEANING
You see public life turn toward the LORD as Hezekiah rises, gathers the city’s rulers, and leads their shared movement to the LORD’s house. The verb for “went up” also underlies “burnt offering,” so the approach carries the language of offering within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that approaching God is only inward: here the king’s movement gathers the city’s rulers into a visible, shared act.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַל
vayyaʿal
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿalah, ascend, rise, go up.
“went up” in this verse is vayyaʿal. The verb for Hezekiah’s movement toward the house and the noun for a burnt offering grow from עלה (ʿalah, go up). The wording lets the procession carry the shape of an offering before the offerings are described.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: A whole burnt offering, named from the idea of ascending.
עֹלָה
The shared root makes ascent and offering sound like related movements; offerings follow in the chapter.
ʿaliyah: An ascent or elevated room.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch keeps the root’s upward movement visible in both the act of going up and the place reached.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
Ḥizqiyyahu
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥazaq, be strong, strengthen, make firm.
Hezekiah’s name carries “the LORD strengthens.” The verse places the king’s authority under that source of strength before showing him gather the city’s rulers.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: Strong or firm.
חָזָק
This branch shows the strength element carried within Hezekiah’s name.
heḥeziq: To make strong or take hold.
הֶחֱזִיק
The verb makes the name’s strength active: something is made firm or held fast.
וַיֶּאֱסֹף
vayeʾesof
GROWS FROM
אסף
ʾasaf, gather, collect, bring together.
“Gathered” shares its root with the ingathering of a harvest: what is scattered is brought into one collected whole. Here, the city’s rulers do not approach singly; they move together toward the house.
ALSO GROWS
ʾasif: The gathering of a harvest.
אָסִיף
The root gathers a yield into a whole, illuminating how the rulers are assembled together.
ʾasuppot: Collections or assemblies.
אָסֻפּוֹת
This branch names gathered things as a collective, not as separate individuals.
THE PATTERN
A people’s movement toward the LORD takes public shape when they assemble and approach the place of meeting.
A Song of degrees of David. I rejoice when they say to me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.Not leaving behind the gathering of ourselves, as is the habit of some, but urging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.THE THREAD
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who made the burnt offerings rise, and slaughtered oxen as wholeness offerings to the LORD.The words translated “went up” here and “burnt offerings” in Exodus grow from עלה (ʿalah, go up); the offering noun is עֹלָה (ʿolah, burnt offering). The shared root lets Hezekiah’s ascent resonate with the sacrificial ascent.
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