What Does 2 Kings 15:1 Mean?
In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.
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
In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.THE KEY
Hebrew uses one root for “king” and “reign,” binding the ruler’s title to the act that gives it meaning.
THE MEANING
Your beginnings occur inside time already moving and relationships already formed: the verse locates a new reign within Jeroboam’s twenty-seventh year and identifies its ruler through his father, Amaziah. Azariah’s name carries “Yah helps,” placing help within the identity that enters the story.
THE ROOT
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
to rule; kingly authority expressed through reigning
“king / reign” in this verse is melekh. Hebrew uses the same מלך root for “king” (melekh) and “reign” (mālakh). The verse’s wording keeps a ruler’s title and the act of ruling in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: king
מֶלֶךְ
The verse names Jeroboam as king and says Azariah begins to reign; both forms grow from this root.
malkhut: kingdom, royal rule
מַלְכוּת
The same root extends from the ruler and the act to the realm shaped by that rule.
עֲזַרְיָהוּ
ʿAzaryahu
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
help, aid, support
“Azariah” in this verse is ʿAzaryahu. עֲזַרְיָהוּ (ʿAzaryahu) carries the meaning “Yah helps.” The root עזר (ʿ-z-r) places help within the name by which the verse introduces the new reign.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: to help, come to someone’s aid
עָזַר
This verb is the help carried in Azariah’s name.
ʿēzer: help, helper
עֵזֶר
This noun makes the root’s help concrete as support, echoing the meaning held in the name.
THE PATTERN
A new reign is located both in a larger timeline and in a line of inheritance.
And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years.In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years.Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Samuel, Hear and respond to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not spurned you, but they have spurned me, that I should not reign over them.The Hebrew word translated “reign” comes from מלך (m-l-k), the same root as “king” in this verse. Samuel’s words expose how a reign is more than a title: it is the exercise of authority over a people.
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