What Does 2 Kings 23:23 Mean?
But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when this Passover was made to the LORD in Jerusalem.
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
But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.THE KEY
Passover is release put into action at the place whose name carries the sound of wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse presents deliverance as an act directed to the LORD: Passover is not only named; it is done. The Hebrew verb behind “holden” means “was done” or “was made,” while Jerusalem’s name carries a resonance of wholeness. Read now, the verse pictures release taking form in the midst of a gathered community.
THE ROOT
הַפֶּסַח
ha-pesach
GROWS FROM
פסח
Pass over; in the Passover setting, spare or protect.
The name of the feast holds the action it recalls: passing over and sparing. English makes “Passover” sound like the name of an event, while the Hebrew keeps the movement of release inside the name.
ALSO GROWS
pasach: To pass over; in the Passover setting, to spare or protect.
פָּסַח
This is the verb beneath the feast’s name, so the observance carries an act of protection within it.
pesach: The Passover observance, named for the act of passing over.
פֶּסַח
The noun keeps the protective action present in the name of the rite.
נַעֲשָׂה
na'asah
GROWS FROM
עשה
Do or make.
The Hebrew verb says the Passover was done or made; it gives the observance the feel of an enacted deed. That wording joins the movement of being spared to something taking form in the present gathering.
ALSO GROWS
asah: To do or make.
עָשָׂה
This verb is the root action behind the verse’s “was holden.”
ma'aseh: A deed, work, or act.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun shows how the root can describe an action made tangible.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be whole or complete; the name carries the resonance of the shalom family, with a dual ending.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the sound of shalom, wholeness, and its -ayim ending gives that wholeness a paired resonance. The place-name lets the verse’s act of release ring alongside the image of gathered wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch of the root gives Jerusalem’s name its resonance of wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the destination of release: a state of being made whole.
THE PATTERN
Passover names deliverance as protection enacted, not merely promised.
And the blood will be a mark for you upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will leap over you, and the blow will not be upon you to ruin you when I strike down the land of Egypt.As hovering birds, so the LORD of hosts will cover Jerusalem. Covering, he will snatch it free, and leaping over it, he will bring it out of harm.Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even the Anointed One, our Passover, was slaughtered for us.THE THREAD
As hovering birds, so the LORD of hosts will cover Jerusalem. Covering, he will snatch it free, and leaping over it, he will bring it out of harm.The Hebrew “passing over” in Isaiah uses the same פסח (pasach) root that names the Passover here. There, the movement becomes direct protection over Jerusalem, so the feast’s name holds an action of being passed over and preserved.
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