What Does 2 Chronicles 34:18 Mean?
Then Shaphan the writer told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll. And Shaphan read it before the king.
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
Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.THE KEY
The scribe and the book share one root: the written record is recounted aloud, reaching the king as a voice.
THE MEANING
A written word reaches the hearer through another person’s voice. The book becomes present in the room as its words are read aloud.
THE ROOT
הַסֹּפֵר
sofer
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
Count, recount, tell, or record
“writer” in this verse is sofer. The Hebrew words for “scribe” and “book” share the root ספר. The one who records and the record itself are joined to recounting: here the preserved words are voiced before the king.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: Book, document, record
סֵפֶר
This is the book Shaphan brings; it shares its root with the scribe who reads it.
saphar: Count, recount, tell
סָפַר
The scribe does more than carry a book: he recounts its preserved words aloud.
mispar: Number, count
מִסְפָּר
This branch keeps the root’s sense of gathering and ordering things into a record.
וַיִּקְרָאֵהוּ
qara
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call, summon, proclaim
“read it before the king” in this verse is qara. The Hebrew verb translated “read” also means “call” or “proclaim.” Reading makes the written words audible, calling them into the hearer’s present.
ALSO GROWS
qore: One who calls or reads aloud; a reader
קֹרֵא
Shaphan is the voice that brings the book’s words before the king.
miqra: Convocation, a gathering called together
מִקְרָא
The same root can describe people called together, echoing how spoken words gather hearers around a text.
THE PATTERN
A written word reaches its hearers when a reader gives it voice.
When all Israel comes to see the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, you will call out this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.And he called aloud from it before the wide place that was before the gate of the waters, from first light until the middle of the day, facing the men and the women, and those who could tell the difference, and the ears of all the people were turned toward the book of the instruction.And he came to Nazareth, where he had been nourished. As was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.THE THREAD
When all Israel comes to see the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, you will call out this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.The Hebrew verb translated “read” is קרא (qara) in both verses, a word that also means “call” or “proclaim.” What reaches one king here opens into a call for all Israel to hear.
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