What Does 2 Chronicles 4:6 Mean?
He made also ten basins, and set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the rising offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
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
He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.THE KEY
The verse gives two washings two different Hebrew verbs: the offering is rinsed in ten basins, while the priests wash in the sea.
THE MEANING
This verse holds the offering and the people who serve it in view at once: the offering is rinsed in the ten lavers, and the priests wash in the sea. Each has its own washing and vessel. Bodily preparation stands alongside preparation of what is offered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that only the offering needs washing; the priests are assigned their own washing too.
THE ROOT
לְהָרְחָצָה
ləharḥāṣāh
GROWS FROM
רחץ
to wash or bathe
English uses “wash” for both acts, but the Hebrew describes the priests’ washing with לְהָרְחָצָה (ləharḥāṣāh, for washing) and the offering’s rinsing with יְדִיחוּ (yədîḥû, they rinse), from דּוּחַ (dûaḥ, rinse or wash away). The distinction makes the priests’ bodily washing its own part of the passage, alongside the rinsing of what is offered.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥaṣ: To wash or bathe a person.
רָחַץ
The related form וְרָחֲצוּ (wə-rāḥăṣû, and they shall wash) appears in Exodus 30:19 as Aaron and his sons wash their hands and feet, showing the root’s use for priestly bodily washing.
raḥṣî: A washpot or vessel for washing.
רַחְצִי
Psalm 60:8 uses this root in the image “Moab is my washpot”; here, the sea and lavers likewise make washing tangible through dedicated vessels.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes approach tangible through washing, giving bodies and what is brought forward their own preparation.
For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it.Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel he was girded with.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it.The same root, רחץ (rāḥaṣ, wash or bathe), describes the priests washing here and in Exodus. The connection shows that the sea’s washing belongs to a recurring pattern of bodily washing for those who serve.
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