What Does 2 Chronicles 9:11 Mean?
And the king made of the algum trees raised roads to the house of the LORD, and to the king's house, and lyres and harps for the singers; and no such had ever been seen in the land of Judah.
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 the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the LORD, and to the king’s palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.THE KEY
The same wood raises a way toward the sacred and becomes instruments for shared song.
THE MEANING
Algum wood becomes both raised passages for the house of the LORD and the palace, and harps and psalteries for the singers. One material serves both approach and expression: it makes a way upward and carries a shared voice. The verse holds access and song together as forms of crafted beauty.
THE ROOT
מְסִלּוֹת
mesillot
GROWS FROM
סלל
salal
To raise or heap up, forming a raised way.
“raised roads” in this verse is mesillot. The Hebrew word is mesillot, from salal, to raise or heap up; it can name a raised path. The wood becomes both a passage that lifts people toward the house and the instruments that carry a shared song.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: A raised road, highway, or path.
מְסִלָּה
The related noun appears as highway in Isaiah 62:10, showing that the terraces belong to the image of a raised way.
sollu: Cast up; raise up.
סֹלּוּ
This command from the same root appears in Isaiah 62:10: a way is made passable by raising it.
solelah: A raised siege ramp or embankment.
סֹלְלָה
The same root can describe a raised structure pressed against a wall, revealing how a built-up way can enable passage or confrontation.
THE PATTERN
A raised or cleared way makes passage possible.
Go through, go through the gates; clear the way for the people; heap up, heap up the highway; gather out the stones; lift a banner for the people.A raised road is there, and a way, and it is called the way set apart. The unclean do not cross it, but it is for those who walk. Even the foolish do not wander there.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.THE THREAD
Go through, go through the gates; clear the way for the people; heap up, heap up the highway; gather out the stones; lift a banner for the people.The word translated highway is mesillah, from the same root as the terraces in this verse. A stairway and a highway share the image of a raised route: here the wood makes a way upward at the house, while Isaiah names raising the way as work that clears passage for a people.
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