What Does 2 Chronicles 9:2 Mean?
And Solomon recounted all her words to her, and no word was hidden from Solomon that he did not tell her.
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 Solomon told her all her questions: and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls her questions דְּבָרִים (devarim, words or matters) and the hidden thing דָּבָר (davar, word or matter): the question and answer share one root.
THE MEANING
Your actual questions are treated as real matters, and what is hidden can be brought into speech. Wisdom answers by taking up the whole inquiry and leaving nothing of it in shadow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a difficult question is undeserving of a full answer: here no matter in the inquiry is withheld.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרֶיהָ
devarêha
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; word, matter, or thing.
“all her words” in this verse is devarêha. The Hebrew calls her questions דְּבָרִים (devarim, words or matters), then uses דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) for what is not hidden. English makes these sound like separate categories, but the verse repeats the same root: what she asks and what could be concealed are both matters brought into speech.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same word names both what she asks about and the thing that might otherwise remain hidden.
dibber: Spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
The answer turns the matter into speech, linking the inquiry to what is made known.
הִגִּיד
higgid
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
Stand out or be in front; make known, declare.
“did not tell her” in this verse is higgid. This verb carries the sense of bringing something forward into view. The verse presents the answer as full disclosure: every matter she raises is brought before her plainly.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, in front of, or opposite.
נֶגֶד
What is told is brought into the open, before the listener.
nagid: Leader or ruler, one who stands at the front.
נָגִיד
This related form preserves the root’s sense of being out in front or made prominent.
נֶעְלַם
neʿlam
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
Hide or conceal; be out of sight.
“was hidden” in this verse is neʿlam. The verb describes a matter under cover, not a matter that has ceased to exist. Here no part of her inquiry remains concealed; each matter moves from hiddenness into what can be told.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalam: To hide or be concealed.
עָלַם
It names the condition the verse says does not hold for any matter she brings.
taʿalumah: A secret or hidden thing.
תַּעֲלוּמָה
This related noun shows concealment as a matter kept out of sight, the state this verse removes.
THE PATTERN
When a matter is brought fully into speech, no part of the inquiry remains withheld.
And Samuel set before him every word, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD. Let him do what is good in his eyes.For there is nothing hidden that will not be brought to light, nor has anything become hidden away, but that it come into the open.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
And Samuel set before him every word, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD. Let him do what is good in his eyes.The same verb הִגִּיד (higgid, declared) appears in both verses, bringing the full matter forward into speech. Samuel’s disclosure is painful, showing that completeness means withholding nothing, not merely giving a pleasing answer.
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