What Does 2 Chronicles 35:13 Mean?
And they roasted the Passover with fire, according to the judgment. But the other set-apart things they boiled in pots, and in kettles, and in pans, and sent them running among all the people.
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 they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.THE KEY
English makes “roasted” and “sod” sound like different acts, but Hebrew uses one cooking root and specifies the methods through the fire, vessels, and ordinance.
THE MEANING
The Passover and the other set-apart offerings are prepared according to their prescribed forms, then portions move quickly to everyone. Careful distinction in preparation ends in food shared across the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that what is set apart must be withheld from common life: these offerings are prepared distinctly, then shared among all.
THE ROOT
בָּשַׁל
bāshal
GROWS FROM
ב־ש־ל
To cook or boil; by extension, to ripen.
“boiled” in this verse is bāshal. The same cooking root underlies both “roasted” and “sod,” while the surrounding words specify fire or cooking vessels. The root also describes grapes coming ripe, joining the ideas of cooking and ripening as food made ready.
ALSO GROWS
levashēl: To cook or boil
לְבַשֵּׁל
This is the root’s cooking sense, present in both preparations named in the verse.
hibshīlû: Ripened, came to maturity
הִבְשִׁילוּ
The same root describes ripe grapes in Genesis 40:10, giving cooking here the deeper shade of food made ready.
וַיָּרִיצוּ
wayyārîṣû
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ץ
To run; to hasten or make something move quickly.
“sent them running” in this verse is wayyārîṣû. The word translated “speedily” is built on the verb for running, so the verse gives the distribution a sense of movement. The adverb preserves the pace but hides the running image.
ALSO GROWS
rāṣ: A runner; one who runs
רָץ
This branch makes the verb’s physical motion visible in the swift distribution.
ārûṣ: I will run
אָרוּץ
Psalm 119:32 uses the same root for running along a path, showing that the word names movement, not simply quickness.
הַקֳּדָשִׁים
ha-qodashim
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־ש
To set apart, consecrate, or mark as distinct.
“set-apart things” in this verse is ha-qodashim. “Holy offerings” comes from the root for what is set apart. Here that distinction appears alongside distribution to all the people, holding consecration and sharing together.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective names the distinct status of the offerings in the verse.
qōdesh: A set-apart thing; consecration
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shares the offerings’ root and shows that their special status belongs to their preparation, even as they are distributed.
THE PATTERN
Meals set apart within a sacred order become occasions of participation across the community.
And they will eat the flesh on that night, roasted with fire, with unrisen bread; with bitter herbs they will eat it.And you shall rejoice before the face of the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite within your gates, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are in your midst, in the place the LORD your God has chosen to settle his name there.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.THE THREAD
Do not eat any of it raw, nor boiled at all in waters, but roasted with fire, its head with its legs and its insides.Exodus 12:9 uses the same cooking root behind “sodden,” then names roasting with fire separately. In 2 Chronicles, that cooking root appears for the Passover prepared with fire and the other offerings cooked in vessels, while the surrounding words specify each method.
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