What Does 2 Chronicles 1:15 Mean in the King James?
And the king made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the vale for abundance.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Abundance has arrived when gold no longer stands apart from the ground, but is as common to the eye as stone.
THE MEANING
This verse lets the reader see provision at a scale where precious metal belongs to the landscape and cedar is as common as lowland sycamore. Its image loosens the link between worth and rarity: fullness can make what was exceptional feel near and ordinary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that something can be valuable only while it remains scarce or distant; here, value remains even when abundance makes treasure commonplace.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew verb carries the shades of giving and setting in place beneath the KJV’s “made.” The repeated verb frames the metals and cedar as an arrangement laid visibly into Jerusalem’s life.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The same verb frames both the precious metals and the cedar as what is set in Jerusalem.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root lets the sense of giving sound beneath the materials being set in place.
לָרֹב
lā-rōv
GROWS FROM
רבב
To become many, multiply, or abound.
The Hebrew word carries the sense of multitude: abundance is multiplication until precious materials fill the scene. Gold and silver meet the eye like stones, while cedar meets it like the sycamores of the lowland.
ALSO GROWS
rōv: Abundance or multitude.
רֹב
This is the word used for the abundance that makes the cedar common in the landscape.
revavah: A myriad or ten thousand.
רְבָבָה
The same root’s language of great number echoes the verse’s picture of wealth beyond scarcity.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Whole, complete, sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the sound and pattern of shalom, wholeness, and the verse places extraordinary abundance there. The city becomes an image of fullness in which even precious materials belong to the ordinary scene.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name carries this pattern of wholeness as the verse pictures its abundance.
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch gives the root’s sense of completeness, which the verse pictures as material fullness.
THE PATTERN
Overflow makes precious goods ordinary, while life’s beauty exceeds even royal splendor.
And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.THE THREAD
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.Both verses use נתן (natan), meaning give, set, or place: the earlier verse says riches are given, and this verse repeats the root as those riches take visible form. The abundance is the shape of what has been given.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us