What Does 2 Chronicles 32:5 Mean?
And he took hold of himself, and built up all the breached wall, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall outside, and strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made arrows and shield in abundance.
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
Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.THE KEY
The same root links strengthening himself to reinforcing Millo, so the verse makes personal readiness and the city’s defenses one continuous act.
THE MEANING
Strength takes practical form where a breach is visible: the wall is rebuilt and raised, another wall is added, and Millo is reinforced. Readiness includes both shelter and force, the darts and shields are made in abundance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that a breached boundary is beyond repair: the wall can be rebuilt, raised, and reinforced.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְחַזֵּק
vayyitḥazzēq
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥazaq
Be strong or firm; strengthen, make firm.
“took hold of himself” in this verse is vayyitḥazzēq. English gives one form as “strengthened” and the later form for Millo as “repaired,” but both come from חזק (ḥazaq, strengthen or make firm). The same seed carries the action from personal strengthening into the city’s reinforcement.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: Be strong, be firm.
חָזַק
This is the root’s basic sense, present in the opening act of strengthening.
vayḥazzeq: He strengthened or reinforced.
וַיְחַזֵּק
This form appears again for Millo, revealing the root shared by “strengthened himself” and “repaired Millo.”
הַפְּרוּצָה
ha-perutsah
GROWS FROM
פרץ
parats
Break through, burst open, make a breach.
The wall is described as הַפְּרוּצָה (ha-perutsah, breached). The root holds the boundary and its breaking open together, making the rebuilding a direct answer to the place where the wall has been breached.
ALSO GROWS
parats: Break through or burst out.
פָּרַץ
It shows that the wall’s damage is an opening through a boundary.
perets: A breach or breaking forth.
פֶּרֶץ
This is the same word family used for “the breach” in Isaiah’s image of repair.
שֶׁלַח
shelach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send, send forth, release.
“arrows” in this verse is shelach. The Hebrew word for darts belongs to שלח (shalach, send or release): these are things sent forth. The same root that names sending also names the outward force prepared alongside the city’s walls and shields.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: Send, send forth, release.
שָׁלַח
The verb reveals the action inside the weapon’s name: a dart is sent forth.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of the waters or pool of Shiloach.
שִׁלֹחַ
Its name preserves the root’s sense of being sent, showing how this word family can carry both outward force and sent waters.
THE PATTERN
Repair makes an exposed structure able to hold again under pressure.
Those who come from you shall build the dry ruins of the ages. You shall raise up the foundations of generation to generation, and you shall be called the mender of the breach, the one who turns the paths back to dwell in.They who built on the wall, and they who bore burdens, with those who lifted the load, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand gripped a weapon.And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds breathed and fell against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been laid on the rock.THE THREAD
Those who come from you shall build the dry ruins of the ages. You shall raise up the foundations of generation to generation, and you shall be called the mender of the breach, the one who turns the paths back to dwell in.Isaiah’s פֶּרֶץ (perets, breach) belongs to the same פרץ (parats, break through or make a breach) family as the breached wall here. The shared root opens the wall’s repair into a wider image: closing what has broken open restores a place where life can dwell.
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