What Does 2 Chronicles 29:30 Mean?
Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praise with gladness, and they bent their heads and bowed down.
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
Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.THE KEY
The Hebrew can be heard as praising “unto gladness”: joy is not only the song’s accompaniment, but the place the praise reaches.
THE MEANING
Praise can carry the reader toward gladness; the response is voiced in song and embodied in the lowering of the head before the LORD. David’s name carries belovedness, placing these words of praise within a language of love.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Joy does not have to be present before praise begins; gladness can be where the song arrives.
THE ROOT
שִׂמְחָה
simchah
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
ś-m-ḥ
to rejoice, be glad
The Hebrew wording can carry the praise “unto gladness,” adding a sense of arrival beneath the KJV’s “with gladness.” Joy is not only a feeling already present; it is where the song reaches.
ALSO GROWS
samach: to rejoice, be glad
שָׂמַח
This verb shares the root beneath “gladness,” showing joy as an act of rejoicing.
mesammeach: one who gladdens, makes glad
מְשַׂמֵּחַ
This form shows the root can also describe bringing gladness, fitting the shared movement of the song.
לְהַלֵּל
lehallel
GROWS FROM
הלל
h-l-l
to praise, celebrate
The command to praise and the Levites’ response use forms of the same root. The repeated sound makes praise both the instruction and the shared action that carries the passage forward.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: praise, a song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This noun names the praise-song that grows from the same root as the Levites’ singing.
hallelu-yah: praise Yah
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
This familiar call to praise makes the root audible as a communal summons.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
beloved; the name carries the nature of the beloved
The words sung here are named as David’s, and David’s name is associated with dod, “beloved.” That adds belovedness to the song’s nature without replacing its plain act of praise.
ALSO GROWS
dod: beloved, kinsman
דּוֹד
This related word carries the belovedness compressed in David’s name.
dodim: loves, endearments
דּוֹדִים
This plural form connects the name’s belovedness with expressed affection.
THE PATTERN
Praise joins voice, gladness, and the body’s bowing in one shared response to God.
Serve the LORD with gladness; come before his face with a ringing cry.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.And all the messengers stand in a circle about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures, and they fall before the throne upon their faces and bow down to God, Saying, Amen. The blessing, and the weight, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, and the might, belong to our God for the ages of the ages. Amen.THE THREAD
Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.Psalm 150 uses the same הלל (halal, praise) root, then widens the song beyond one gathered people: every breathing creature is named within it. The Levites’ praise becomes one voice in a creation-wide song.
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