What Does 2 Kings 13:12 Mean?
And the rest of the words of Joash, and all that he did, and his might, with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
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 rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?THE KEY
The Hebrew calls both Joash’s deeds and their chronicle “words,” joining what he does to the account that carries it forward.
THE MEANING
Your actions outlast the moment they occur, becoming part of the account through which your days are known. The verse leaves most of that account outside the frame, pointing to a record beyond the line in view.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים
dibrê hayyāmîm
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; a word, matter, or affair.
The Hebrew words translated “acts” and “chronicles” share the same three consonants: a deed is a matter to be recounted, and the chronicle is the words of the days. The verse joins what happens to the account that preserves it.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word, thing, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
This branch shows how the root can hold both something spoken and something that happens.
dibbēr: To speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken word and the recorded deed grow from the same root, linking action with its telling.
dibrê hayyāmîm: Words or matters of the days; annals or chronicles.
דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים
This is the phrase rendered “chronicles,” literally naming a record as the words of the days.
THE PATTERN
What happens in a life exceeds a single telling, so scripture points beyond the passage to records that preserve its deeds.
And the rest of the words of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the words of Solomon?Now the words of David the king, the first and the last, look, they are written in the scroll of Samuel the one who sees, and in that of Nathan the prophet, and in that of Gad the one who sees.And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written down one by one, I suppose that even the ordered world itself could not make room for the books that would be written. Amen.THE THREAD
And the rest of the words of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the words of Solomon?Solomon’s deeds and their archive are named with the same root, making the link grammatical as well as thematic. The phrase “words of the days” reveals the chronicle as a telling that carries forward what happened.
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