What Does 2 Chronicles 34:8 Mean?
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the chief of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the one who calls to mind, to strengthen the house of the LORD his God.
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
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.THE KEY
The verb translated “repair” is חזק (ḥazaq, strengthen): first the land and house are cleared, then the house is made firm again.
THE MEANING
Clearing and repair belong to one movement: what is made clean is ready to be strengthened. The house of the LORD is a dwelling that can be restored through shared, purposeful work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a defiled dwelling is beyond repair is undone here: after cleansing, the house can still be strengthened.
THE ROOT
לְחַזֵּק
ləḥazzēq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong; strengthen or make firm.
“strengthen” in this verse is ləḥazzēq. Beneath “repair” is the sense of strengthening what has weakened. The work restores the house’s firmness, not only its appearance.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
The same root connects repair with the strength the house is meant to regain.
maḥazīq: One who holds fast or maintains.
מַחֲזִיק
What is made firm can hold together and endure.
לְטַהֵר
ləṭahēr
GROWS FROM
טהר
Be clean or pure; purify.
“cleansed” in this verse is ləṭahēr. The verse uses the same cleansing movement for both the land and the house. Cleansing prepares the dwelling for the strengthening that follows.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhōr: Clean, pure.
טָהוֹר
The root names the cleanness that follows the purging.
ṭohŏrāh: Purification, cleanness.
טָהֳרָה
The house is not discarded after it is cleared; purification makes room for its restoration.
שָׁלַח
shālaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, let go.
The people are sent outward toward the work of strengthening the house. Sending turns the intention to restore into movement.
ALSO GROWS
shālūaḥ: Sent, dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
The root’s form for one sent echoes the people dispatched to carry out the repair.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a watercourse also called Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent watercourse echoes the movement of sending in this verse: what is sent forth reaches the place where restoration is needed.
THE PATTERN
What is cleared or opened is renewed into a sound dwelling.
He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and strengthened them.Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steady breath within me.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
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.Both passages use חזק (ḥazaq, strengthen or make firm) for work that restores what is damaged. There, the root appears with a broken wall and the repair of Millo; here, it names the strengthening of the LORD’s house.
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