What Does 2 Kings 15:8 Mean?
In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zachariah son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months.
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 thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.THE KEY
The verse sets “Yah helps” beside “Yah remembers,” while measuring the reign in six months.
THE MEANING
A brief season of visible authority is real, but it is not the only thing this line places before you: the names also carry help and remembrance. The verse states the limit plainly and leaves those names beside it.
THE ROOT
זְכַרְיָה
Zekharyah
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, keep in mind.
Zachariah joins זָכַר (zākar, “remember”) with Yah, so the name carries “Yah remembers.” That claim sits beside the stark six-month span; the verse names the limit without reducing the name to it.
ALSO GROWS
zākar: Remember, call to mind.
זָכַר
This is the root carried in Zachariah’s name: remembrance is part of how the person is named.
zikkārôn: Memorial, remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
The same root can describe remembrance given lasting form, extending the name’s meaning beyond a passing moment.
עֲזַרְיָהוּ
ʿAzaryāhū
GROWS FROM
עזר
Help, aid, support.
Azariah joins the root of help with the divine name. The verse places “Yah helps” before “Yah remembers,” then gives the reign its precise six-month measure.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: Help, assist.
עָזַר
This verb is the root at the heart of Azariah’s name.
ʿēzer: Help, aid.
עֵזֶר
This related form makes explicit the help carried by the name.
THE PATTERN
A scriptural name carries the nature being revealed into the scene, rather than serving only as an identifier.
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.I have made your nature visible to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have guarded your word.THE THREAD
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God caused a breath to cross over the earth, and the waters settled.“Remembered” translates וַיִּזְכֹּר (wayyizkor, “remembered”), from זכר (z-k-r, “remember”), the same root carried by Zachariah’s name. Here the name’s meaning becomes an action: remembrance turns toward Noah and every living thing in the ark.
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