What Does 2 Chronicles 17:13 Mean in the King James?
And he had much business in the cities of Judah: and the men of war, mighty men of valour, were in Jerusalem.
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
Judah’s strength is both spread through the work of its cities and gathered for protection at its center.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to your life as a picture of work carried across many places and strength gathered where it can meet pressure. Jerusalem carries the language of wholeness, and here protective strength stands within that image of wholeness.
THE ROOT
גִּבּוֹרֵי
gibborei
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong or prevail.
The word translated “mighty” grows from the same root as the verb for prevailing: strength is a capacity to withstand or overcome pressure. Here that strength is embodied in the people gathered at the city’s center.
ALSO GROWS
gavar: To be strong, prevail, or become mighty.
גָּבַר
This verb shows the active force contained in “mighty”: the word points to strength that holds or prevails.
gevurah: Might, strength, or valor.
גְּבוּרָה
This noun names the strength itself, linking the warriors’ description to a broader quality of power.
gibbor: A mighty person, hero, or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This is the singular form behind the verse’s plural, making the people’s gathered strength visible in each person.
חַיִל
chayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
ḥ-y-l
Strength, force, or capacity.
The Hebrew behind “valour” can also refer to an army, resources, or capability. The verse therefore holds personal courage within a wider field of collective strength and means.
ALSO GROWS
chayil: An army, host, or military force.
חַיִל
The same word can name organized force, so the warriors’ valor belongs to the strength gathered for a community.
eshet chayil: A woman of strength, capability, or valor.
אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל
Proverbs uses this phrase for a woman, showing that this capacity reaches beyond battlefield courage.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Wholeness, completeness, or soundness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries the language of wholeness, and the verse places armed strength within that named center. Read together, readiness and wholeness occupy the same picture.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, or peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch brings the meaning of wholeness into the name of the place where the warriors stand.
shalem: Whole, complete, or sound.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit, illuminating Jerusalem as a center named for wholeness.
THE PATTERN
A community is sustained when many kinds of work and strength are brought into service together.
They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.THE THREAD
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.The warriors in this verse are described with the word chayil, also rendered “virtuous” in Proverbs’ description of a woman. That shared word reveals strength and capability as a broader human capacity, not a quality limited to the battlefield.
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