What Does 2 Chronicles 31:4 Mean?
Moreover he commanded the people who settled in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be held fast in the instruction of the LORD.
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 he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.THE KEY
The people’s portion gives the teachers strength in the LORD’s instruction, making provision part of how the teaching endures.
THE MEANING
This verse describes a living arrangement: the community’s provision gives those entrusted with the LORD’s instruction strength to remain in it. Teaching and material support are joined, with the community sustaining the work that serves it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that instruction can be honored in words while those who carry it are left without their share.
THE ROOT
יֶחֶזְקוּ
yeḥezqū from ḥazaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be strong, grow firm, or strengthen.
“held fast” in this verse is yeḥezqū from ḥazaq. The word carries the sense of being made strong, not merely feeling encouraged. The same root describes the Levites supporting the priests in 2 Chronicles 29:34, showing strength here as something that can be given and received.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This form names the strength the priests and Levites are enabled to maintain in the LORD’s instruction.
maḥăzîqîm: Supporting, strengthening, helping.
מַחֲזִיקִים
The KJV renders this related form as the Levites “did help” the priests; the shared root connects that help with the strengthening described here.
מְנָת
menat
GROWS FROM
מנה
To allot, assign, or number.
The word for portion belongs to a root that also means to assign or appoint. The support is described as a defined share within the community, directly tied to the teachers’ strength in instruction.
ALSO GROWS
mānâ: To count, assign, or appoint.
מָנָה
The root links a portion with the act of setting out an allotted share.
māneh: An allotted measure or share.
מָנֶה
This related form makes visible the measured, material character of the portion given to sustain the priests and Levites.
THE PATTERN
Communal provision sustains those who carry worship and instruction.
And behold, I have given to the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel as a holding, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.Let the one being taught the word share in all good things with the one who teaches.THE THREAD
But the priests were too few, so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings. So their brothers the Levites strengthened them, until the work was finished, and until the other priests had set themselves apart. For the Levites were straighter in heart than the priests in setting themselves apart.The same root חזק appears here in the Levites’ helping the priests and in 31:4, where the people’s portions strengthen the Levites in instruction. In one verse the Levites support the priests; in the other, the people support those who teach, a shared chain of strength.
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