What Does 2 Kings 20:21 Mean?
And Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
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 Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.THE KEY
The throne passes from a name meaning “YHWH has strengthened” to one linked with “causing to forget,” placing continuity and forgetting in the same succession.
THE MEANING
A season of authority ends, while the story continues through another person. Hezekiah’s name means “YHWH has strengthened,” while Manasseh is linked to “causing to forget,” so succession carries both continuity and change.
THE ROOT
מְנַשֶּׁה
Menashsheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
Forget; in the causative form, cause to forget.
Genesis 41:51 explains the name Manasseh through the words “God…hath made me forget.” Here the name enters a succession notice, bringing the resonance of forgetting alongside the change of ruler without deciding what the new reign will mean.
ALSO GROWS
nāshāh: To forget.
נָשָׁה
This is the root behind the name’s wordplay in Genesis 41:51.
nāshannî: He made me forget.
נַשַּׁנִי
This form in Genesis 41:51 is the phrase used to explain the name Manasseh.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
Ḥizqiyyāhû
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm; strengthen.
“Hezekiah” in this verse is Ḥizqiyyāhû. The name joins the root חזק (ḥ-z-q, “be strong, strengthen”) with the divine name, and is commonly understood as “YHWH has strengthened.” Beside Manasseh, it places strengthening and forgetting next to each other in the line of succession.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, grow firm, prevail.
חָזַק
This verb gives Hezekiah’s name its language of strength.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen, make strong.
חִזֵּק
This related form makes explicit the imparted strength carried in the name’s meaning.
THE PATTERN
One ruler’s death transfers authority to the next generation while the larger story continues.
And Solomon lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.One generation walks away, and another generation comes, but the earth stands for ages.He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Highest; and the LORD God will give him the seat of his father David.THE THREAD
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn the Forget-Maker, Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.Genesis makes the name’s wordplay explicit: “Manasseh” echoes “hath made me forget.” That shared root lends the successor’s name a resonance of forgetting, while this verse leaves the future weight of that resonance unstated.
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