What Does 2 Chronicles 16:1 Mean in the King James?
In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
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 fortress controls passage by withholding what the Hebrew calls a “giving”: the right to go out or come in.
THE MEANING
Power takes the shape of a barrier: a built height controls who can move in or out. The verse shows how controlling passage can become a way to control a people.
THE ROOT
לָתֵת
latet
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“let” in this verse is latet. The Hebrew phrase says the fortress is built so as not to “give” anyone passage out or in. The root makes access something that can be placed within reach, or withheld, which is how the blockade works.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verb at the heart of the blockade frames passage as something granted or denied.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given; here, the same root’s language of giving is turned into withheld access.
netinim: Given ones; temple servants.
נְתִינִים
The word names people as assigned or given to a service, echoing how the passage treats movement as subject to another’s control.
רָמָה
Ramah
GROWS FROM
רום
Rise, be high, exalt.
Ramah carries the sense of a height or elevated place. Here that height becomes a strategic point from which passage can be controlled.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or exalted.
רָם
The word shares the sense of elevation carried by Ramah’s name.
marom: Height or high place.
מָרוֹם
This branch makes the elevated terrain in the scene audible within the place name.
THE PATTERN
Authority over people becomes visible in who can open or close the way.
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.THE THREAD
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.The same root, נתן (natan, “give, set, place”), appears in the promise to place the key on a shoulder. In this verse the fortress withholds passage; in Isaiah the key-holder’s authority to open and shut is given.
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