What Does 2 Chronicles 9:18 Mean?
And there were six ascents to the throne, with a footstool of gold joined to the throne, and hands on either side at the place of the sitting, and two lions standing beside the hands.
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 there were six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne, and stays on each side of the sitting place, and two lions standing by the stays:THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “footstool,” kevesh, shares its root with “subdue,” so the throne’s elevation rests on a word for what is brought beneath authority.
THE MEANING
The throne is more than a high seat: six steps lead upward to it, while a gold footstool, side supports, and standing lions shape the place around it. Authority appears as an elevated seat whose base and flanks are part of its design.
THE ROOT
כֶּבֶשׁ
kevesh
GROWS FROM
כבשׁ
kabash
tread down, subdue, bring under dominion
The word for the gold footstool shares its root with the verb for subduing. The language places the throne’s base in the same word-family as what is brought beneath authority.
ALSO GROWS
kabash: subdue; bring under dominion
כָּבַשׁ
This verb gives the footstool’s name a shade of what lies beneath and is brought under rule.
kevesh: footstool; ramp or raised approach
כֶּבֶשׁ
Here it names the gold structure at the throne’s base, joining the image of authority with what supports or leads up to the seat.
מַעֲלוֹת
ma'alot
GROWS FROM
עלה
alah
rise, go up, ascend
The word translated “steps” carries the sense of ascents. The throne’s approach is described as upward movement, not merely as a set of objects beside a seat.
ALSO GROWS
alah: go up; ascend
עָלָה
This verb is the motion held inside the word for the steps leading to the throne.
olah: that which goes up; burnt offering
עֹלָה
This related noun preserves the root’s upward sense in another form, showing how the same seed can name both ascent and what rises.
THE PATTERN
Approach to an enthroned presence is pictured as a rising path that ends in arrival.
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder standing on the earth, and its head reached to the heavens; and behold, messengers of God were climbing up and coming down on it.They walk from strength to strength, and each one of them appears before God in Zion.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.THE THREAD
Then David the king rose to his feet, and said, Hear and respond, my brethren, and my people. As for me, my heart was set on building a house to settle the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the footstool of our God, and I had made ready for the building.The footstool here and the footstool associated with God’s house use the same Hebrew word, kevesh. That shared root lets the throne’s base echo the place beneath divine authority.
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