What Does 2 Chronicles 9:5 Mean?
And she said to the king, Truth was the word that I heard in my own land, concerning your words and your wisdom.
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 she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:THE KEY
In Hebrew, the “report” and the king’s “acts” are both davar, the word and the matter it carries belong together.
THE MEANING
A true report can reach you before you encounter its source yourself. Here, the heard word and the reality it names hold together, so wisdom has both a reputation and a lived form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that truth cannot reach you through another person’s report; what you hear can faithfully carry what is real.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
haddavar
GROWS FROM
דבר
Word, matter, or thing; as a verb, to speak.
“truth was the word” in this verse is haddavar. The Hebrew calls what she heard “the word” or “the matter,” and the KJV renders the same דבר family as “acts” in “thine acts.” English separates the report from the king’s deeds, while Hebrew holds word and matter in one family.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The report and the matter it describes share this word, joining testimony to what it carries.
dibbēr: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
Speech grows from the same root as the matter or report spoken about.
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm or steady; reliable.
“truth was the word” in this verse is emet. The word translated “true” carries the sense of firmness: what is true holds steady. Its family also connects truth with trust and affirmation, so this report is presented as something that can be relied upon.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust; steadiness or faithfulness.
אֱמוּנָה
The reliable report invites trust because its word holds firm.
amen: Amen; an affirmation, “so be it.”
אָמֵן
The same root family gives a spoken affirmation to what is held as true.
THE PATTERN
A report about reality gains weight when its words hold up in direct encounter.
And I did not lean my weight on their words until I came and my eyes had seen it; and behold, the one half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You have added wisdom and goodness to the report which I heard.And they said to the woman, Now we lean our weight on him, not because of your word, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that in truth this one is the Anointed One, the deliverer of the world.That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have perceived with our eyes, which we have gazed upon, and our hands have touched, concerning the word of life.THE THREAD
The head of your word is truth, and every judgment of your alignment stands for the ages.This verse joins the same Hebrew words: davar, “word/matter,” and emet, “truth/firmness.” The report in 2 Chronicles is a word whose matter holds true; the Psalm makes that bond explicit.
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