What Does 2 Chronicles 22:8 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.
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 same Hebrew root stands beneath “executing judgment” and “slew,” tying Jehu’s action against Ahab’s house to the deaths of Judah’s princes and Ahaziah’s kin.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two scales of violence in one sentence: Jehu kills Ahab’s house, then kills Judah’s princes and Ahaziah’s kin when he finds them. Their ties to Ahaziah’s family and service are named alongside their deaths.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that judgment against a royal house stops at its boundaries: the violence here also kills Judah’s princes and Ahaziah’s kin.
THE ROOT
הָרֹג
hārog wayyahargem
GROWS FROM
הרג
To kill, to slay.
“executing judgment; slew” in this verse is hārog wayyahargem. The Hebrew uses this root twice: first beneath “executing judgment” against Ahab’s house, then in “slew them.” That repetition holds the broad campaign and these particular deaths together in the same word for killing.
ALSO GROWS
wayyahargem: And he killed them.
וַיַּהַרְגֵם
This is the second occurrence of the root in the verse, naming the fate of the men Jehu finds.
hōrēg: One who kills; a slayer.
הֹרֵג
The same root names the agent by the act, keeping the human actor behind “executing judgment” in view.
hārūg: Slain; one who has been killed.
הָרוּג
This form names the victim’s side of the same act, making the verse’s judgment visible in those killed.
THE PATTERN
Violence aimed at a ruling house or rival can extend to people marked by kinship, service, household, or proximity.
So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.Genesis uses the root הרג for Cain’s killing of Abel; 2 Chronicles uses it beneath “executing judgment” and again in “slew them.” The shared verb connects a killing within a family to killings carried out in a royal campaign, holding the physical act in view across both passages.
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