What Does 2 Kings 23:28 Mean?

Now the rest of the words of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah?

2 Kings 23:28 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

THE KEY

The book of “chronicles” is literally a book of “words of the days”: what is done becomes a story time can still tell.

THE MEANING

The verse holds a life in view through the work it leaves behind. Josiah’s deeds remain gathered in a record that others can read, so what he does continues to be part of his story.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that what you do vanishes with the moment is undone: deeds can remain in a record beyond the person who did them.

THE ROOT

דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים

divrei hayamim

GROWS FROM

דבר

To speak; a word, matter, or affair.

The Hebrew phrase means “words of the days.” The record gathers time into an account: deeds become matters that can still be told.

ALSO GROWS

davar: A spoken word, thing, or affair.

דָּבָר

The record treats what happened as something that can be named and recounted.

dibber: To speak or say.

דִּבֵּר

The root links the written record to speech: what can be told can also be preserved.

עָשָׂה

asah

GROWS FROM

עשה

To do or make.

The verb translated “did” also carries the sense of making. A person’s deeds are what they bring about, and here those deeds become part of a lasting account.

ALSO GROWS

ma'aseh: An act, work, or thing done.

מַעֲשֶׂה

It names the kind of action this verse gathers into a record.

asiyah: The act or process of doing.

עֲשִׂיָּה

It keeps the focus on what is brought about through action, the material of the account.

THE PATTERN

What people do and say can be preserved as a record that outlasts the moment.

Now the words of David the king, the first and the last, look, they are written in the scroll of Samuel the one who sees, and in that of Nathan the prophet, and in that of Gad the one who sees.

1 Chronicles 29:29 · SDVDavid’s deeds, like Josiah’s, are gathered into written records that keep them available to be recounted.

Then those who stand in awe of the LORD spoke, each one to his neighbor, and the LORD bent his ear and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written before his face for those in awe of the LORD, who reckon his name.

Malachi 3:16 · SDVThe words people speak are heard and written into a record of remembrance.

And I see the dead, small and great, standing before God. The scrolls are opened, and another scroll is opened, which is the book of life. The dead are judged by the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.

Revelation 20:12 · SDVThe image of opened books makes deeds readable as a record beyond the moment they were done.

THE THREAD

And God saw all that he had made, and look, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 · SDV

The Hebrew verb translated “made” shares the root ⁨עשה⁩ (asah, to do or make) with “did” in this verse. Genesis shows what has been made being seen; here, what has been done is preserved in a record.

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