What Does 2 Kings 16:5 Mean?
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to fight, and pressed in against Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
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
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.THE KEY
Jerusalem’s wholeness can be ringed by threat while the besiegers still fail to prevail over Ahaz.
THE MEANING
You can face pressure closing in from more than one side without that pressure becoming the whole truth of your situation. The verse holds both realities together: Ahaz is besieged, yet the attackers cannot prevail.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being surrounded means defeat is already certain.
THE ROOT
וַיָּצֻרוּ
vayatsuru
GROWS FROM
צור
ṣ-w-r
To bind in, press around, or besiege.
“pressed in against” in this verse is vayatsuru. The root describes the encircling action itself, while the verse says that action does not become victory. English can move quickly from “besieged” to the outcome; Hebrew holds the pressure and its limit side by side.
ALSO GROWS
tāṣūr: You besiege
תָּצוּר
This verb form in Deuteronomy 20:19 shows the same root describing the act of pressing around a city.
māṣôr: Siege
מָצוֹר
This noun in Zechariah 12:2 names the enclosing condition created by the action.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
Wholeness, completeness, soundness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) in its name. The verse places that named wholeness inside a siege: being surrounded is a condition around the city, not the definition of what it is.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch keeps the city’s name connected to wholeness even as the attackers close around it.
shillem: Make whole; repay or restore
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries the root’s sense of wholeness into restoration, widening what the name can hold beyond the siege.
אָחָז
ʾĀḥāz
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
To grasp, seize, or hold.
Ahaz’s name carries אחז (ʾāḥaz, grasp or hold) within it. The attackers close around him, but the verse stops short of giving them the final hold.
ALSO GROWS
neʾeḥaz: Caught or held
נֶאֱחַז
The same root describes a ram caught in a thicket in Genesis 22:13, making the idea of being held concrete.
ʾaḥuzzāh: Possession or holding
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun keeps the root’s sense of holding visible, sharpening the difference between being surrounded and being conquered.
THE PATTERN
Surrounding pressure describes an attack’s position, not proof of its victory.
Though a camp should pitch against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I lean my full weight.Take counsel together, and it shall be broken; speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us.We are pressed on every side, yet not cramped into a narrow place; we are without a way through, yet not without a way out.THE THREAD
Look, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the peoples around, when they are in the siege against Judah and against Jerusalem.Zechariah’s “siege” is מָצוֹר (māṣôr), from the same צור (ṣ-w-r, bind in or besiege) root as “besieged” here. The shared root keeps the image precise: enemies can establish an enclosure around Jerusalem, while enclosure and conquest remain distinct.
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