What Does 2 Chronicles 5:6 Mean?
Also king Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel that met with him before the ark, slaughtered sheep and oxen, which could not be counted nor numbered for their multitude.
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
Also king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude.THE KEY
The verse says the offering outruns two kinds of accounting: recounting and assigning a number.
THE MEANING
The verse places the whole congregation before the ark, with sheep and oxen in a quantity no one can count. Its paired verbs let the scale of a shared offering exceed any total a person can make.
THE ROOT
יִסָּפְרוּ
yissāferu
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
To count or recount; also to relate or record.
“counted” in this verse is yissāferu. Here, “told” carries the counting sense of Hebrew ספר (safar, “count or recount”), rather than meaning that the animals cannot be spoken of. Paired with מָנָה (manah, “count or assign”), the verse says the multitude defeats both recounting and numbering.
ALSO GROWS
sāfar: To count, recount, or relate.
סָפַר
This verb names the act the verse says cannot contain the multitude.
sēfer: A book, scroll, or written record.
סֵפֶר
The same root links counting with making a record, underscoring how the offering exceeds an account.
sōfēr: A scribe or recorder.
סוֹפֵר
The scribe’s work grows from the same root: the attempt to reckon and preserve what is before the community.
יִמָּנוּ
yimmānu
GROWS FROM
מ־נ־ה
To count, reckon, appoint, or assign.
“numbered” in this verse is yimmānu. The second verb presents the animals as a set that could be counted or assigned a place in a total. Together with ספר (safar, “count or recount”), it makes the limit clear: neither recounting nor enumeration can contain this abundance.
ALSO GROWS
mānāh: To count, reckon, appoint, or assign.
מָנָה
This is the verb’s root form and shows the act of making a count or allotment.
nimnāh: To be counted, numbered, or included.
נִמְנָה
This related form makes explicit what the verse’s verb conveys: being placed within a reckonable set.
THE PATTERN
When a community gathers around God, devotion takes visible form in shared offerings.
And they spoke unto Moses, saying, The people multiply their bringing, far more than enough for the serving of the work, which the LORD commanded to make.But do not let slip the good you do and the sharing in common, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.THE THREAD
Many are the works you make, O LORD my God, the wonders, and your plans toward us. They cannot be laid in rows before you. If I would recount them and speak them, they are more than can be numbered.Psalm 40:5 uses the same root ס־פ־ר (safar, “count or recount”) in מִסַּפֵּר (missappēr, “counting”) to say that the works exceed enumeration. Here the offerings exceed count; there, the works and thoughts do, linking the verses through the same image of abundance beyond an account.
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