What Does 2 Chronicles 3:4 Mean?
And the porch before the house, its length facing the width of the house, was twenty forearms, and its height a hundred and twenty; and he sheathed its inside with clean gold.
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
And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.THE KEY
The entrance carries the house’s full breadth, and that Hebrew breadth is the same root scripture uses for being brought into a spacious place.
THE MEANING
The front porch spans the breadth of the house, and its interior is covered in pure gold. The verse places spaciousness at the entrance and precious covering within.
THE ROOT
רוחב
roḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
raḥav
To become wide or spacious; to make room.
English presents “breadth” as a measurement, while its root also names the opening of space. The same root appears in מֶרְחָב (merḥav, a broad place), so the porch’s width carries the language scripture uses for being brought into room.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: Wide, broad.
רָחָב
This adjective makes explicit the spacious quality contained in the house’s measured breadth.
merḥav: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This is the same root in Psalm 118:5’s “large place,” where breadth describes room opened beyond distress.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, breadth names room opening in a dwelling, a place of distress, and the inner life.
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The word behind “breadth” here and “large place” there share רחב (raḥav, to become wide or make room). The porch’s architectural measure opens into a lived image of space beyond distress.
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