What Does 2 Chronicles 6:6 Mean?

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

2 Chronicles 6:6 · 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

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

THE KEY

God chooses both the place that bears his name, his nature, and the ruler over his people, joining presence to authority.

THE MEANING

The verse meets you with a picture of choosing as placing: God’s name, his nature, is there, and David is set over Israel. Presence and authority are held together within the same choosing; neither is a self-made claim.

THE ROOT

וָאֶבְחַר

va’evḥar

GROWS FROM

בחר

baḥar (⁨בָּחַר⁩): to choose, select.

“chosen” in this verse is va’evḥar. The verb is repeated for Jerusalem and David: the same act chooses a place for the name and a person to stand over the people. Its branches show choosing as distinguishing and selecting, not merely preferring.

ALSO GROWS

mivḥar: choice; the best selection

מִבְחָר

This branch names what is distinguished as the choice, bringing the root’s act of selecting into view.

nivḥar: chosen; selected

נִבְחָר

This passive form shows the one who is chosen as receiving a place through another’s choice.

דָּוִד

David

GROWS FROM

דוד

dōd (⁨דּוֹד⁩): beloved; also uncle or kinsman in related usage.

David’s name echoes the Hebrew word for beloved. Set beside the repeated choosing, the verse holds appointment together with belonging: the ruler’s name carries a nature of belovedness.

ALSO GROWS

dōd: beloved; also uncle or kinsman

דּוֹד

This noun shares the name’s consonants and carries its sense of intimate relation.

dōdîm: loves; caresses

דּוֹדִים

The plural form appears in love poetry and extends the same consonantal family into expressions of affection.

THE PATTERN

God’s choice places his name among a people and assigns people a role through which his nature is made visible.

But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to place his nature there, even to his dwelling you shall seek, and there you shall come.

Deuteronomy 12:5 · SDVGod’s choosing sets apart a place to bear his name and serve as his dwelling.

You did not pick me out, but I picked you out and set you, that you may go and bear fruit, and that your fruit may remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my nature, he may give you.

John 15:16 · SDVChoice places people into a role whose lasting fruit reflects the one who chose them.

But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.

1 Peter 2:9 · SDVA chosen people are given an identity and a purpose that makes the character of the one who called them visible.

THE THREAD

He chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.

Psalm 78:70 · SDV

Psalm 78:70 uses the same Hebrew root ⁨בחר⁩ (baḥar, choose) and names David as the one chosen. It opens the repeated choosing here as one act that encompasses both the place bearing God’s name and the ruler over the people.

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