What Does 2 Kings 15:32 Mean?
In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah 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 second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses one root for Jotham’s reigning and both kings’ titles, so two sovereigns occupy the same line of time.
THE MEANING
Two royal clocks run at once: Pekah is in his second year while Jotham’s reign begins. Your beginnings, too, take place inside a world already in motion.
THE ROOT
מָלַךְ
mālaḵ
GROWS FROM
מלך
To rule; kingship.
“reign / king” in this verse is mālaḵ. The Hebrew uses the same root for Jotham’s act of reigning and for the titles of both kings. English gives us different words, while the Hebrew ties the action of ruling to the office, and places two rulers in the same moment.
ALSO GROWS
meleḵ: King
מֶלֶךְ
This is the title given to the rulers of Israel and Judah in the verse.
mamlāḵāh: Kingdom
מַמְלָכָה
The same root connects a ruler to the realm over which that ruler holds power.
יוֹתָם
Yōtām
GROWS FROM
תמם
To be complete or whole.
Jotham’s name is commonly understood as “YHWH is complete” or “YHWH is whole,” with its second element echoing תָּם (tam, whole). The verse introduces a new reign under a name that carries wholeness, even as the surrounding timeline remains shared with another king.
ALSO GROWS
tam: Whole; complete
תָּם
This element echoes the wholeness carried in Jotham’s name.
tamim: Whole; sound; complete
תָּמִים
This related form shows the root’s sense of integrity and wholeness.
עֻזִּיָּהוּ
ʿUzzîyāhû
GROWS FROM
עזז
To be strong or mighty.
Uzziah’s name is commonly understood as “YHWH is my strength.” English gives his place in Jotham’s family line; the Hebrew name also carries a declaration of strength in relation to YHWH.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōz: Strength; might
עֹז
This noun carries the strength present in Uzziah’s name.
ʿaz: Strong; mighty
עָז
This related form shows the root describing strength as a quality.
THE PATTERN
Scripture locates a new beginning within authority already in motion.
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.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.THE THREAD
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.This verse gives the same kind of overlapping date: a new reign begins in another king’s second year. Hebrew uses the מלך (malak, rule) root for both the act of reigning and the title of king, tying the two simultaneous rulers together at the word level.
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