What Does 2 Kings 14:23 Mean?

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years.

2 Kings 14:23 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.

THE KEY

The Hebrew marks Jeroboam’s accession and his forty-one-year tenure with the same root, making the reign one continuous span.

THE MEANING

The verse holds two kingdoms in one frame: Judah under Amaziah and Israel under Jeroboam. Rule has a named beginning, a place in Samaria, and a measured span of forty-one years.

THE ROOT

מָלַךְ

mālak

GROWS FROM

מלך

to rule or become king

“reign” in this verse is mālak. The Hebrew uses forms of ⁨מלך⁩ in both the accession clause and the duration clause: the same seed carries the verse from entering rule to holding it across forty-one years. Its branches name the act of ruling, the ruler, and the realm, joining the time span to the structure of kingship.

ALSO GROWS

melek: king

מֶלֶךְ

This branch names the person who holds the rule begun in the verse.

mamlākāh: kingdom, realm

מַמְלָכָה

This branch names the domain over which the rule extends.

THE PATTERN

Scripture makes a reign legible by anchoring its beginning to another ruler’s years and marking its span.

In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.

2 Kings 15:1 · SDVThe verse locates Azariah’s accession within Jeroboam’s reign, just as the current verse locates Jeroboam’s within Amaziah’s.

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, with Pontius Pilate leading Judea, and Herod ruling a fourth of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruling a fourth of Ituraea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruling a fourth of Abilene.

Luke 3:1 · SDVThe account places its moment among several rulers at once, making time visible through overlapping offices and jurisdictions.

THE THREAD

Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah.

1 Kings 15:1 · SDV

The Hebrew uses the same ⁨מלך⁩ (mālak, rule) root for “reigned” here and for Jeroboam’s reign in the current verse. Both verses make one ruler’s span visible by locating it within another king’s years.

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