What Does 2 Kings 18:16 Mean?
At that time Hezekiah cut the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had sheathed, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
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
At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.THE KEY
The gold Hezekiah had laid over the temple is cut free from it and transferred to Assyria’s king.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now through a concrete transfer: Hezekiah cuts the gold from the temple doors and pillars he had overlaid, then gives it to Assyria’s king. What covered the sacred structure becomes tribute, and the verse leaves the stripping itself visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is dedicated to God is beyond seizure: the temple’s gold is physically removed and handed to an empire.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵם
wayittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place
“gave” in this verse is wayittenem. The same root holds the sense of giving and placing something into another’s hands. Here, the transfer follows the removal of the gold: what covered the temple is placed under the control of Assyria’s king.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place
נָתַן
This is the verb beneath “gave”; it makes the movement of the gold into another ruler’s hands explicit.
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
The noun for a gift shares this root, though the verse’s transfer is tribute, not a voluntary gift.
קִצַּץ
qitsats
GROWS FROM
קצץ
Cut off, sever
“cut” in this verse is qitsats. This root keeps the removal physical: the gold is severed from what it covers before it changes hands. The temple loses its gilded surface, while the gold remains valuable enough to be transferred.
ALSO GROWS
qatsats: Cut off, sever
קָצַץ
The verb names the physical removal of the gold from the temple’s doors and pillars.
qetsitsah: A cutting or severing
קְצִיצָה
The related noun makes the act of separation visible as an event, not merely a loss of value.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
Chizqiyahu
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, strengthen
“Hezekiah” in this verse is Chizqiyahu. The name carries the sense “YHWH strengthens,” from חזק (chazaq, “be strong, strengthen”) and the divine element Yahu. The verse sets that strength-name beside the act of surrendering the temple’s gold and leaves the tension intact.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Be strong, strengthen
חָזַק
This is the strength-root carried in Hezekiah’s name.
Chizqiyahu: YHWH strengthens
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
The king’s name brings the root’s meaning into the scene as he transfers the temple’s gold.
THE PATTERN
What is associated with God can become a contested resource when political power makes its claim.
Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and gave them into the hand of his servants; and king Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that settled at Damascus, saying,And he brought out from there all the storehouses of the house of the LORD, and the storehouses of the king's house, and cut all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give back therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.THE THREAD
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the house of the LORD and in the storehouses of the king's house.The same root, נתן (natan, “give, set, place”), lies beneath “gave” in both verses. Silver is handed over first; then the gold is cut from the temple’s doors and pillars, carrying the transfer from stored wealth to the sanctuary’s visible surface.
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