What Does 2 Chronicles 2:14 Mean in the King James?
The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.
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 Hebrew word behind “device” means a thought or design: the verse shows thought passing into material through skilled hands.
THE MEANING
Here, understanding moves through hands into gold, silver, stone, timber, and cloth. Thought takes different forms without losing its design, and individual skill meets other skilled hands in shared work.
THE ROOT
מַחֲשָׁבֶת
machashevet
GROWS FROM
ח־ש־ב
Think, reckon, devise.
The word translated “device” also means a thought or design. The verse links making with thinking: the design is already present in the thought before it takes shape in a material.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: Think, reckon, devise.
חָשַׁב
The verb behind the design links conceiving a work with considering or reckoning it.
machashavah: Thought, plan, design.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This noun shows how the root’s act of thinking becomes a conceived plan, the sense carried by “device.”
יוֹדֵעַ לַעֲשׂוֹת
yodea la'asot
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
Know, perceive through encounter.
“skilful to work” in this verse is yodea la'asot. The Hebrew says “knowing to do.” Skill here is knowledge that has met the work itself and can move across materials, not information held at a distance.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
This verb names knowing through encounter, the kind of knowledge that can guide a hand at work.
da'at: Knowledge, perception.
דַּעַת
The related noun makes clear that practical skill belongs to a wider field of knowing and perceiving.
לְפַתֵּחַ
lefatteach
GROWS FROM
פ־ת־ח
Open.
“to grave” in this verse is lefatteach. The verb for engraving comes from the root meaning “open,” which also gives the Hebrew word for an opening or doorway. Engraving can be seen as opening a surface so a design appears through what is cut away.
ALSO GROWS
patach: Open.
פָּתַח
This is the verb’s basic root sense, present beneath the work of engraving.
petach: Opening, doorway.
פֶּתַח
This related noun shows the same root carrying the idea of an opening into a new form.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom becomes visible when thought is shaped into material work and offered within shared craft.
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.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
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.“Device” here and “thoughts” in the Psalm come from the same Hebrew root, ח־ש־ב (ch-sh-b), carrying the sense of thought or design. The Psalm’s thoughts are “to us-ward,” connecting human making with a thought already directed toward the reader.
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