What Does 2 Chronicles 20:28 Mean in the King James?

And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 20:28 · 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

Jerusalem carries the root of wholeness, and this arrival carries that wholeness into the LORD’s house as music.

THE MEANING

You arrive at wholeness with sound around you: strings and trumpets accompany the way into the LORD’s house. Nearness to God is pictured here as embodied and shared, not silent or abstract.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This unsettles the belief that drawing near to God requires leaving the senses behind: this arrival is carried by strings and trumpets into the LORD’s house.

THE ROOT

יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

Yerushalayim

GROWS FROM

שׁלם

To be whole, complete, or sound.

Jerusalem carries the root-sound ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m), also heard in shalom (⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩, wholeness). The arrival reaches Jerusalem and continues to the LORD’s house, so wholeness is not left abstract: the passage gives it a shared, musical sound.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness; peace

שָׁלוֹם

The shared ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m) consonants link Jerusalem’s name with the wholeness voiced by the arriving assembly.

shalem: Whole; complete

שָׁלֵם

This branch shows the root’s basic sense of completeness beneath the English idea of peace.

THE PATTERN

Approach to God takes audible, embodied form through shared praise.

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

Psalm 150:3 · KJVTrumpet, psaltery, and harp make praise a sound carried through the body.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Psalm 100:4 · KJVEntering God’s courts is joined to thanksgiving and praise.

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Revelation 5:8 · KJVThe assembly before the Lamb brings harps and prayer into the scene of approach.

THE THREAD

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Psalm 122:6 · KJV

“Jerusalem” and “peace” echo the Hebrew root ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m), meaning wholeness. This verse makes audible the connection the Psalm names: arrival at Jerusalem’s wholeness is accompanied by music on the way to the LORD’s house.

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