What Does 2 Chronicles 11:23 Mean in the King James?
And he dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced city: and he gave them victual in abundance. And he desired many wives.
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
Wisdom here takes the form of distributed succession: sons are placed across fortified cities and supplied abundantly, while desire for many wives remains in the same frame.
THE MEANING
You meet wisdom as concrete placement: a family spread through Judah and Benjamin’s fortified cities and provided for in abundance. The desire for many wives stands beside that careful distribution. The verse holds foresight and appetite together without letting one erase the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the assumption that a person described as wise has every desire under wise restraint: strategic provision and the pursuit of many wives appear side by side.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּחְכַּם
vayyeḥkam
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
To be wise, become wise, or act skillfully.
“dealt wisely” in this verse is vayyeḥkam. The verb’s root can describe practical skill as well as wisdom. Here, that wisdom is visible in arranging the sons across fortified cities and providing for them, rather than remaining an abstract quality.
ALSO GROWS
ḥokhmāh: Wisdom; also skill or skilled ability.
חָכְמָה
This related noun shows that the root can name a capacity expressed through practical work and arrangement.
ḥākām: A wise or skilled person.
חָכָם
This branch makes the connection between discernment and capable action explicit: wisdom can be recognized in what someone skillfully orders.
THE PATTERN
Careful stewardship places people across a network and provides for them where they are.
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.THE THREAD
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,Exodus uses חָכְמָה (ḥokhmāh, wisdom) for the capacity behind workmanship, showing the same root can name skilled making as well as discernment. That branch makes this verse’s wisdom tangible: it appears in how people are placed and provided for.
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