What Does 2 Kings 16:10 Mean?
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the shape of the altar and its likeness, according to all its making.
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 king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.THE KEY
A glimpse becomes a blueprint when what the eye receives is sent onward to someone else’s hands.
THE MEANING
What you take in with your eyes can become a pattern you send onward; the form you adopt shapes what gets built. The verse shows how observation becomes material: one altar’s design becomes instructions for another person’s workmanship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief undone is that what you observe stays outside you. Here, the observed form crosses that boundary and directs what another pair of hands makes.
THE ROOT
תַּבְנִית
tabnith
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build, construct, form.
Tabnith names a form meant to take shape in what is built. The word’s connection to building reveals that a pattern is already a path from what is seen to what hands make.
ALSO GROWS
banah: Build, construct.
בָּנָה
This verb shares the seed of tabnith: the pattern is tied to the act of building.
binyan: Building, structure.
בִּנְיָן
This branch names the formed structure, linking the plan with the thing made.
אָחָז
Ahaz
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
Grasp, seize, hold.
The name Ahaz carries the sense of grasping. In this verse, that sense echoes through the sequence: a form is taken in by sight, fixed as a pattern, and passed along for making.
ALSO GROWS
achaz: Grasp, seize, hold.
אָחַז
The verb gives the name its nature and echoes the taking-up of the altar’s form.
achuzzah: Holding, possession.
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun makes the idea of grasping concrete: a form taken up can become something held and carried forward.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlach from shalach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, stretch out the hand.
“sent” in this verse is vayyishlach from shalach. The sending carries the design beyond the place where it was seen. Shalach holds both dispatch and release: the form leaves Ahaz’s sight and reaches the priest who will enact it.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent, dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
This branch keeps the focus on what is sent onward, as the altar’s design is transmitted to the priest.
Shiloach: Sent; the name associated with the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the same sending image: what is sent passes from one place to another.
THE PATTERN
A form takes force when sight becomes a pattern that directs another person’s hands.
According to all that I show you, the form of the dwelling and the form of all its vessels, so you make it.Then David gave to Solomon his son the shape of the porch, and of its houses, and of its storehouses, and of its upper rooms, and of its inner rooms, and of the place of the covering.who serve in a tracing and a shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned by God when he was about to finish the tent. For look, he says, "Make all things according to the impression shown to you on the mountain."THE THREAD
According to all that I show you, the form of the dwelling and the form of all its vessels, so you make it.Both verses use תַּבְנִית (tabnith, pattern), from בנה (banah, build). In Exodus the shown pattern becomes a dwelling and its instruments; here the pattern seen in Damascus becomes a specification sent for another altar. The shared word ties a perceived form to the work that gives it shape.
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