What Does 2 Chronicles 26:16 Mean in the King James?
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
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 collapse begins before the temple breach: strength lifts the heart until its elevation is already pointed toward ruin.
THE MEANING
The verse shows strength turning into self-exaltation: his heart rises until that rising becomes ruin. The inward shift takes outward form when he enters the LORD’s temple to burn incense, an act the verse names as unfaithfulness toward his God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that growing stronger makes the heart safer or more entitled: strength can become the condition for self-exaltation and ruin.
THE ROOT
גָּבַהּ
gābah
GROWS FROM
גבה
To become high, rise, or be lofty.
The Hebrew describes the heart becoming high, the same root used for height and loftiness. English can make “lifted up” sound like a passing feeling; the root shows an elevation that shapes what follows.
ALSO GROWS
gōbah: Height or loftiness.
גֹּבַהּ
In Proverbs 16:18, this same root describes the height that comes before destruction.
gābōah: High or lofty.
גָּבֹהַּ
This adjective carries the same root’s sense of being elevated, illuminating how the heart’s rise becomes the verse’s central movement.
לְהַשְׁחִית
lehashchit
GROWS FROM
שחת
To ruin, spoil, or corrupt.
This root can name ruin as a process of spoiling or corruption as well as its outcome. It keeps the verse’s destruction in view as the course toward which the lifted heart moves.
ALSO GROWS
shāḥat: To ruin, destroy, or spoil.
שָׁחַת
The verb preserves the sense of active ruin within the phrase translated “to his destruction.”
mashchit: A destroyer or one who brings ruin.
מַשְׁחִית
This related form shows the root’s range from the act of ruining to the one who carries it out.
וַיִּמְעַל
vayyim‘al
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act unfaithfully or deal treacherously.
The root gives “transgressed” the shade of unfaithfulness or sacrilege, a breach of trust rather than a merely abstract rule-crossing. The verse joins that breach to a concrete act: entering the temple to burn incense.
ALSO GROWS
mā‘al: To act unfaithfully or commit a breach.
מָעַל
This verbal form names the unfaithfulness the verse says is directed against the LORD.
me‘ilah: Treachery, trespass, or sacrilege.
מְעִילָה
This related noun gives a name to the breach that the verse expresses as an action.
THE PATTERN
When inward elevation treats strength as entitlement, the rise turns toward collapse and humbling.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.THE THREAD
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.Proverbs uses the same root גבה (gābah, to be high) in גֹּבַהּ (gōbah, height or loftiness), rendered “haughty.” Here the heart rises; there, height comes before destruction and stumbling. The shared root reveals the recurring structure: self-elevation already carries the direction of its collapse.
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