What Does 2 Chronicles 30:14 Mean?
And they rose and turned aside the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars of smoke they turned aside, and threw them into the brook Kidron.
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 they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.THE KEY
The root קום (qum, “rise, stand”) also forms מקום (maqom, “place”): the people rise to change what stands in Jerusalem.
THE MEANING
For you now, the verse makes clearing tangible: what occupies the center is removed and cast away, so the practice it sustains cannot keep its place. The action moves all the way from rising to disposal; nothing is merely renamed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a practice can end while the thing that sustains it remains in place.
THE ROOT
וַיָּקֻמוּ
wayyaqumu
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
to rise, stand, or be established
“rose” in this verse is wayyaqumu. The root that means “rise” also forms מקום (maqom, “place”), the place where something stands. The people rise and then remove what occupies Jerusalem, linking their movement to a change in what remains there.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: place
מָקוֹם
The shared root ties a place to what stands in it; here, rising leads to changing what occupies the city.
heqim: raise, establish
הֵקִים
This form shows the root can describe establishing something; the verse’s rising is followed by removing structures from their place.
הַמְקַטְּרוֹת
ha-meqatterot
GROWS FROM
קטר
q-t-r
to burn incense or make smoke rise
“altars of smoke” in this verse is ha-meqatterot. The Hebrew term names these altars by what they do: they make incense smoke rise. The removal reaches beyond an object to the structures that sustain that act.
ALSO GROWS
qatar: burn incense, make smoke rise
קָטַר
The verb names the action these altars enable, so their removal interrupts the practice at its source.
qetoret: incense
קְטֹרֶת
This related noun names what is burned; the verse removes the places built to produce it.
וַיַּשְׁלִכוּ
wayyashlikhu
GROWS FROM
שלך
sh-l-k
to throw or cast
“threw” in this verse is wayyashlikhu. The verb carries the removal through to disposal: the altars are thrown into the brook, not simply taken out of sight. The root makes the finality of the action concrete.
ALSO GROWS
shalakh: throw, cast
שָׁלַךְ
This is the root’s basic action, describing how the altars are disposed of.
hishlikh: throw down, cast away
הִשְׁלִיךְ
This related form emphasizes a decisive casting away, matching the verse’s movement from removal to disposal.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes visible when the objects or structures sustaining a rival practice are physically removed.
And he brought out the Asherah pole from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the streambed of Kidron, and burned it at the streambed of Kidron, and beat it to dust, and threw its dust over the graves of the children of the people.And Jesus went into the temple of God, and threw out all who sold and bought in the temple, and turned over the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves.Many of those who had practiced the meddling arts also brought their scrolls together and burned them before all people; and they counted the price, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God rise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee from his face.“Arise” here and in this verse comes from קום (qum, “rise, stand”). In this passage people rise and remove the altars; in the psalm, God’s arising is paired with enemies scattering, linking rising with a change in what can remain in place.
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