What Does 2 Chronicles 24:5 Mean in the King James?

And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not.

2 Chronicles 24:5 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

What the KJV calls “repair” is a call to strengthen, and the repeated word for hurry exposes the gap between assigned care and action.

THE MEANING

The verse makes care for God’s house concrete: resources are gathered so the house can be strengthened year after year. The call to hurry returns as a report that the Levites do not hurry, exposing how assigned responsibility and actual movement can separate.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A clear assignment guarantees that the work will move.

THE ROOT

לְחַזֵּק

leḥazzēq

GROWS FROM

חזק

Be strong, become firm; in this form, strengthen.

The Hebrew verb behind “repair” means “strengthen.” The work restores firmness to the house, making its care a matter of helping it stand in its proper strength.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāzaq: Be strong, become firm, prevail.

חָזַק

This branch shows the strength the repair is meant to restore to the house.

ḥizzēq: Strengthen, reinforce.

חִזֵּק

This form shares the verse’s sense of making the house firm again.

מַהֲרוּ

mahăru

GROWS FROM

מהר

Hasten, act quickly.

“hasten” in this verse is mahăru. The same verb appears first as the command and then as its negation: the Hebrew repeats the word for the expected pace to mark the failure to move. The verse makes visible the distance between a call to act and action itself.

ALSO GROWS

mahēr: Quickly, hastily.

מַהֵר

This form carries the same idea of speed called for in the command.

mehērāh: Speedily, with haste.

מְהֵרָה

This related form keeps the verse’s focus on pace and prompt action.

THE PATTERN

The care of God’s house takes shape when a community’s assigned work becomes tangible labor.

So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it.

2 Chronicles 24:13 · KJVHere the work reaches completion through tangible labor that restores and strengthens the house.

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.

Nehemiah 3:1 · KJVThe priests turn responsibility for Jerusalem’s gate into shared construction.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJVGod’s building is joined to shared labor, carrying the house image into a community’s identity.

THE THREAD

And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

Genesis 18:6 · KJV

Genesis uses the same root, ⁨מהר⁩ (māhar, “hasten”), twice: Abraham hastens into the tent and tells Sarah to prepare quickly. Here that same verb is commanded and then negated, linking haste with concrete care that moves into action.

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