What Does 2 Chronicles 35:7 Mean?
And Josiah gave to the people, from the flock, lambs and kids, all for the Passover, for all who were found there, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand young bulls. These came from the king's gathered goods.
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 Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king’s substance.THE KEY
The verb translated “gave” also carries the motion of “raised up”: the king’s gift is lifted from his own holdings and placed within the people’s reach.
THE MEANING
The verse presents shared participation as something provision can make possible: what one person holds can reach the gathered people. The offerings extend to all who are present, so taking part does not depend only on what each person brings.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that everyone must arrive with enough of their own before they can belong gives way here to a picture of provision reaching the whole gathering.
THE ROOT
וַיָּרֶם
wayyārem
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
Rise or be high; in this verb form, raise or lift up.
The wording translated “gave” also carries the motion of lifting up, picturing the gift as raised from the king’s own holdings and extended to the people. The same root forms תְּרוּמָה (terumah, contribution or offering), joining this act of provision to the language of an offering lifted up.
ALSO GROWS
terumah: Contribution or offering.
תְּרוּמָה
This offering word comes from the same root as “raised up,” linking the gift to the image of something lifted and set apart.
marom: Height or heights.
מָרוֹם
It preserves the root’s sense of rising; here, what is raised from the king’s holdings moves into the people’s reach.
THE PATTERN
Shared participation becomes possible when provision moves from one person’s holdings into the hands of the gathered.
And if the house is too small for the lamb, then he and his neighbor beside his house will take it according to the count of living souls. Each man, according to the mouth of his eating, you will count toward the lamb.But through evenness, that in this present season your overflow may fill their lack, and their overflow may fill your lack, that there may be evenness.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me a lifted offering. From every man whose heart stirs him to give, you take my lifted offering.The verb behind “gave” comes from רום (rum, lift up), and “offering” here renders תְּרוּמָה (terumah, contribution or offering), from the same root. The shared root connects the king’s lifted provision with the scriptural language of a contribution set apart.
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