What Does 2 Chronicles 11:3 Mean in the King James?

Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,

2 Chronicles 11:3 · KJV

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

The verse names a bounded place around “all Israel,” while Rehoboam’s name carries the widening of a people.

THE MEANING

A spoken word can name a specific hearer and still hold a whole people within its reach. Rehoboam’s name carries the image of a people widened, while Judah carries the root of praise. Person, people, and praise all sit inside the address.

THE ROOT

רְחַבְעָם

Reḥavʿam

GROWS FROM

רחב

Be broad or spacious; joined with ⁨עַם⁩ (ʿam), “people,” the name carries the sense “the people are widened.”

Rehoboam’s name holds widening inside this tightly bounded address. The phrase “all Israel” is named within Judah and Benjamin, while the name at its center carries the image of a people made broad.

ALSO GROWS

rachav: Broad, wide, spacious.

רָחָב

Its sense of breadth gives the name Rehoboam its image of a people widened.

merḥav: Open space, a broad place.

מֶרְחָב

This branch makes the root’s widening spatial: breadth is room to move within.

יְהוּדָה

Yehudah

GROWS FROM

ידה

Praise or give thanks; Judah’s name is associated with this root.

Judah carries the sound and sense of praise within the address. It is more than a place name here: its name brings acknowledgment into the way the people are named.

ALSO GROWS

yadah: Praise, give thanks, acknowledge.

יָדָה

This verb is the root associated with Judah’s name, bringing praise into the verse’s naming of the place.

todah: Thanksgiving, praise.

תּוֹדָה

This related word shows how the root’s act of acknowledgment can become an expression of thanks.

אֱמֹר

Emor

GROWS FROM

אמר

Say, speak, utter.

“Speak / saying” in this verse is Emor. The command begins with emor, “speak,” and closes with leʾmor, “saying,” repeating the same root at both edges. The Hebrew holds the act of speaking and the words delivered within one verbal family, where English uses two forms.

ALSO GROWS

imrah: Utterance, saying.

אִמְרָה

This noun carries the same root into the spoken content itself.

maʾamar: Saying, statement.

מַאֲמָר

It shows the root can name not only the act of saying but also what is said.

THE PATTERN

A spoken word makes its reach visible by naming the hearers it gathers.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJVThe word names Israel directly, drawing the whole people into its address.

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

Jeremiah 1:7 · KJVThe word addresses one person and makes the reach of that speech explicit: all those to whom he is sent.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

Acts 2:14 · KJVThe speech names its hearers and gathers those present into a shared address.

THE THREAD

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Genesis 12:1 · KJV

Genesis 12:1 uses the same root, ⁨אמר⁩ (amar), for “had said.” In both verses, speech reaches a named hearer and opens the way for what follows.

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