What Does 2 Chronicles 8:1 Mean?
And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house.
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 it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house,THE KEY
The Hebrew verb translated “built” can also describe the forming of a living person, so these two houses carry more than construction: they are brought into inhabitable form.
THE MEANING
The sacred dwelling and the personal dwelling stand together in one span of work. The twenty years give their formation a long measure: both take time to become houses. The verse holds both kinds of dwelling inside the same account.
THE ROOT
וַיִּבֶן
vayyiven
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
to build, establish, or form
The root behind “built” appears in Genesis 2:22, where the KJV says God “made” a woman. This verb can describe forming a living person as well as raising a dwelling, revealing a wider sense of bringing something into form.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: building, construction
בִּנְיָן
This noun carries the same root into the act or result of building, echoing the work named in the verse.
mivneh: structure, form
מִבְנֶה
This branch names what building brings into shape, drawing attention to the houses as formed dwellings.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, building language describes the forming of both an inhabitable dwelling and a living form.
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.The Hebrew verb translated “built” here is the same verb translated “made” in Genesis 2:22. Its use for forming a woman opens the word beyond construction: building can mean bringing a living form into being.
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