What Does 2 Chronicles 3:7 Mean?
He sheathed also the house, its beams, its posts, its walls, and its doors, with gold; and he inscribed cherubim upon the walls.
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
He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.THE KEY
The word rendered “graved” is וַיִּפְתַּח (wayyiftaḥ, “he engraved”), from פתח (pataḥ, “to open”): the gold-covered house is also described as having walls opened into cherubim.
THE MEANING
The house gleams under gold, while its walls carry engraved cherubim: covering and carved form occupy the same sacred interior. The Hebrew word for engraving comes from a root meaning “open,” so the wall’s carved image is named through the language of an opening.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְתַּח
wayyiftaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
Open; make an opening.
The English “graved” makes the action sound like decoration, while פתח carries the underlying image of opening. The carving is named as an opening in the wall’s surface, making the cherubim visible there.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: Opening; entrance.
פֶּתַח
This branch names an opening directly, revealing the shared root beneath the word translated “graved.”
pittuaḥ: Engraving; carved work.
פִּתּוּחַ
This branch names carved ornament, linking the verse’s engraved figures to the root’s sense of opening.
וַיְצַף
wayəṣap
GROWS FROM
צפה
Cover; overlay; plate over.
“sheathed” in this verse is wayəṣap. Gold is laid over the beams, posts, walls, and doors, so brilliance rests upon the house’s structure. Alongside the language of opening, the verse holds covering and carved form together in one interior.
ALSO GROWS
ṣippûy: Coating; overlay.
צִפּוּי
This noun names the covering layer laid over the house.
ṣāpûy: Covered; coated.
צָפוּי
This form describes something under a covering, echoing the gold laid over the house’s structure.
THE PATTERN
The sacred dwelling bears cherubim imagery across its coverings, walls, and furnishings.
Moreover you shall make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work you shall make them.And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and opened blossoms, within and without.Above it are the cherubim of weight, casting their shade over the covering, about which we cannot now speak piece by piece.THE THREAD
The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and opened blossoms, and sheathed them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees.This verse uses the same פתח (pataḥ, “open”) root for the carving on the doors, then describes gold laid over the carved forms. The wall and the door share the same movement: a surface is covered and marked with cherubim.
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