What Does 2 Kings 23:34 Mean?
And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, whom God raises up, the son of Josiah, king in the place of Josiah his father, and turned his name into Jehoiakim, whom the LORD raises up. And he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt, and died there.
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 Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.THE KEY
The name Pharaoh imposes still says that YHWH is the one who raises the king.
THE MEANING
Power can install one person, rename him, and remove another from the seat of power. Yet the imposed name Jehoiakim means “YHWH raises,” placing the act of elevation under a source Pharaoh does not name as himself. The verse holds coercive authority and a claim beyond it in the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The authority that gives someone a title is the whole source of that person’s rise.
THE ROOT
אֶלְיָקִים
ʾElyaqim
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise, stand, or be established.
“Eliakim, whom God raises up” in this verse is ʾElyaqim. Both names grow from the same root: Eliakim means “God raises” or “God establishes,” while Jehoiakim means “YHWH raises” or “YHWH establishes.” Pharaoh changes the divine name within it, but the name he imposes still attributes the raising to God.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root carried in both names: the one named is bound to the language of rising.
heqim: To raise or establish.
הֵקִים
The causative form makes the names’ meaning active: someone raises or establishes the king.
maqom: Place; a standing place.
מָקוֹם
This related word connects standing with having a place, fitting the passage’s question of who places a person on the throne.
וַיַּמְלֵךְ
vayyamlekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
mlk
To reign or be king.
“made king” in this verse is vayyamlekh. The Hebrew uses a causative form: Pharaoh causes Eliakim to reign; he does not merely recognize an existing king. The same root gives Hebrew its words for king and kingdom, showing kingship here as an office conferred through political power.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The person made king is named by the same root as the act of ruling.
mamlakhah: Kingdom or realm.
מַמְלָכָה
The root extends from the ruler to the political domain his appointment governs.
THE PATTERN
Names assigned by authority can place a person publicly and interpret the nature associated with them.
And the Great House called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah, and gave him Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, as wife. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.The master of the eunuchs set names upon them. To Daniel he set the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah the name Shadrach, to Mishael the name Meshach, and to Azariah the name Abednego.Joses, whom the sent ones called Barnabas, which is, being interpreted, son of comfort, a Levite and a Cypriot by birth,THE THREAD
He raises the bowed from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap, to seat them among the openhanded, and to make them hold the seat of weight. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he sets the world upon them.The Hebrew verb translated “raiseth up” comes from the same root carried by Eliakim and Jehoiakim. Here that raising places the poor among princes and gives them a throne, opening the name’s claim beside Pharaoh’s appointment.
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