What Does 2 Chronicles 30:4 Mean?
And the word was straight in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly.
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 thing pleased the king and all the congregation.THE KEY
The “thing” is דָּבָר (dābār, matter or word): what is spoken becomes good in the shared sight of the king and the assembly.
THE MEANING
A matter comes into shared view: the king sees it as good, and so does the whole assembly. Its goodness is recognized across both authority and the gathered community.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a spoken word, matter, or affair.
Hebrew uses דָּבָר for both a word and a matter at hand. Calling it “the thing” keeps its link to what has been spoken and is now seen as good by the whole assembly.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: spoke; to speak
דִּבֵּר
The spoken form shares the root of the matter being considered, linking what is said with what is done.
devarim: words; matters
דְּבָרִים
The plural carries both senses, showing how spoken words and matters belong to the same root family.
וַיִּיטַב
wayyiṭab
GROWS FROM
י־ט־ב
y-t-b
To be good, go well, or be pleasing.
“was straight” in this verse is wayyiṭab. The verb describes the matter as going well in the sight of both the king and the assembly. “Pleased” carries not only satisfaction but a shared judgment of goodness.
ALSO GROWS
heytiv: to do well; to benefit
הֵיטִיב
This form shows the root’s sense of goodness as something that takes effect in how a matter goes.
meitav: the best; the finest
מֵיטָב
This branch carries the same root’s sense of what is judged good.
THE PATTERN
A matter gains shared standing when it is seen as good across leadership and the gathered people.
And all the assembly said they would do so, for the word was straight in the eyes of all the people.Without counsel, plans are broken, but in a multitude of counselors they stand.Then it seemed good to the sent ones and elders, with the whole assembly, to send chosen men from among themselves to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.THE THREAD
And he bent you low, and made you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you had never perceived, nor had your fathers, so that he might make you perceive that humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD does humankind live.Both verses use דָּבָר (dābār), which can mean a spoken word or a matter at hand. Deuteronomy shows this word as what sustains life; here the “thing” is a matter whose goodness is recognized in shared view.
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