What Does 2 Kings 14:21 Mean?
And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
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 all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.THE KEY
The public handoff moves from a father named for Yah’s strength to a son named for Yah’s help, placing succession inside a vocabulary of divine support.
THE MEANING
A change in authority involves both family ties and the wider community: all Judah takes the young successor and establishes him where his father stood. The verse places that public act alongside names that carry Yah’s strengthening and help. Communal recognition is part of how authority takes form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that succession happens automatically through the family line: the people actively establish the next ruler.
THE ROOT
עֲזַרְיָהוּ
ʾAzaryahu
GROWS FROM
עזר
Help, aid, support
Azariah’s name is commonly understood as “Yah has helped,” carrying the root for help alongside the divine name. The name places help at the center of this public transfer of rule.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: To help, aid
עָזַר
The verb gives the name its action of help.
ʿēzer: Help, aid, support
עֵזֶר
This noun holds the same root meaning as a form of support.
וַיַּמְלִכוּ
wayyamlîḵû
GROWS FROM
מלך
To reign, rule
“made him king” in this verse is wayyamlîḵû. The root reaches beyond the title “king” to the act of ruling and the realm of rule. Here the people perform that transition: they make Azariah king.
ALSO GROWS
mālaḵ: To reign, become king
מָלַךְ
The verb names the activity that the people confer in this verse.
malkhût: Kingdom, reign
מַלְכוּת
This branch names the realm or reign that begins with the transfer.
אֲמַצְיָהוּ
ʾAmatsyahu
GROWS FROM
אמץ
To be strong, be firm
Amaziah’s name is commonly understood as “Yah has strengthened.” Its root carries strength and firmness, so the father’s name and Azariah’s both hold language of divine support across the handoff.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmēṣ: Strong, firm
אָמֵץ
This form carries the root’s sense of strength.
ʾimmēṣ: Strengthen, make firm
אִמֵּץ
This verb shows the root as an action that gives strength.
THE PATTERN
A community makes a leadership transition real by receiving and recognizing the person who takes the role.
And Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the breath of wisdom, for Moses had leaned his hands upon him; and the children of Israel heard him and responded, doing as the LORD commanded Moses.And they ate and drank before the LORD on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him to the LORD to be the one set in front, and Zadok to be priest.And the word pleased all the full crowd, and they picked out Stephen, a man full of trust and of the Set-Apart Breath, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, one who had come over, from Antioch.THE THREAD
And the name of the other was Eliezer, my God is help; for the God of my father, he said, was my help, and snatched me from the sword of Pharaoh.Azariah and Eliezer both carry the Hebrew root עזר (ʿ-z-r), meaning help or aid. Exodus makes that meaning explicit in Eliezer’s name, opening the help-root inside Azariah’s name as well.
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