What Does 2 Chronicles 7:7 Mean?
And Solomon set apart the middle of the court before the house of the LORD, for there he made the rising offerings and the fat of the wholeness offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the rising offering, the gift offering, and the fat.
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
Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brasen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, and the meat offerings, and the fat.THE KEY
The offering outgrows its altar, and the court itself becomes set apart to receive it.
THE MEANING
Sacredness reaches into the court because the altar cannot contain all that is brought. The offerings carry two movements in their names: ascent and wholeness. The set-apart space widens around what the altar cannot hold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what cannot fit the designated altar must remain outside sacred space: the court itself is set apart to receive it.
THE ROOT
וַיְקַדֵּשׁ
wayqaddēsh
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
q-d-sh
set apart, mark as sacred
“set apart” in this verse is wayqaddēsh. The verb names an act of setting apart the center of the court, so consecration reaches beyond the altar. Its root also names the set-apart quality and the sanctuary, tying sacredness to a marked place.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
The same root names the quality of a place marked off for God.
qōdesh: sacredness, set-apartness
קֹדֶשׁ
The verb here makes sacredness an act that reaches the court’s center.
miqdāsh: sanctuary, set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The court is marked by the same root that names a sanctuary.
עֹלוֹת
ʿōlōt
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-l-h
ascend, go up
“rising offerings” in this verse is ʿōlōt. The word for burnt offering belongs to the root meaning “ascend.” In this verse, the offering named by ascent exceeds the altar’s capacity, and the court is set apart around it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: ascend, go up
עָלָה
This verb gives the offering its name, placing a movement of rising inside the rite’s vocabulary.
ʿăliyyāh: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun carries the same upward movement as a thing or action, echoing the offering as ascent.
שְׁלָמִים
shelāmîm
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
be whole, complete
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelāmîm. The name of these offerings comes from the family of completeness and wholeness. “Peace” here carries that wider resonance alongside the ascent named by the burnt offering.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch of the root carries the offering’s connection to wholeness.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit.
THE PATTERN
An offering’s place of reception can itself be set apart, and sacred space can widen when the appointed altar cannot contain what is brought.
For seven days you cover the altar, and set it apart. It is an altar most set apart. Whatever touches the altar is set apart.That same day the king set apart the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered ascending offerings, and gift offerings, and the fat of the wholeness offerings; for the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to hold the ascending offerings, and gift offerings, and the fat of the wholeness offerings.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.The shared word is עֹלוֹת (ʿōlōt, “burnt offerings”), the plural of עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “that which ascends”), from עָלָה (ʿālāh, “ascend, go up”). Genesis places the ascent on an altar; here it exceeds the bronze altar’s capacity, and the court is set apart around it.
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