What Does 2 Chronicles 35:27 Mean?

And his words, first and last, behold, they are written in the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.

2 Chronicles 35:27 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

THE KEY

“First and last” makes the deeds a whole-life account: no single moment contains the record.

THE MEANING

This verse holds your deeds across the full span, from first to last. What you do gathers into a trace by which a life can be remembered as a whole.

THE ROOT

מַעֲשָׂיו

ma'asav

GROWS FROM

עשה

To do, to make.

“words” in this verse is ma'asav. The Hebrew word for “deeds” grows from the same root as “to do” and “to make.” It presents actions as what a life makes over time, gathered here into a record from first to last.

ALSO GROWS

oseh: One who does or makes.

עֹשֶׂה

The participle keeps the root in motion: deeds are acts of doing, not an abstract quality.

ma'aseh: Work, deed, or act.

מַעֲשֶׂה

This is the singular noun from the same root; it is the seed-form behind the king’s recorded deeds.

THE PATTERN

A life’s deeds accumulate into an account that can be read across its whole span.

Now the words of David the king, the first and the last, look, they are written in the scroll of Samuel the one who sees, and in that of Nathan the prophet, and in that of Gad the one who sees.

1 Chronicles 29:29 · SDVDavid’s record is also described as written from first to last, holding a whole life in view.

For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 · SDVThe account extends beyond public deeds to every work, including what remains secret.

And I see the dead, small and great, standing before God. The scrolls are opened, and another scroll is opened, which is the book of life. The dead are judged by the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.

Revelation 20:12 · SDVThe opened books make the record of works explicit and consequential.

THE THREAD

For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 · SDV

The Hebrew word ⁨מַעֲשֶׂה⁩ (ma’aseh, work or deed) names the king’s deeds here and every work in Ecclesiastes. Both grow from ⁨עשה⁩ (asah, to do or make), joining what is done to what is recorded and brought into account.

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