What Does 2 Chronicles 27:3 Mean in the King James?
He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.
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 act builds both the entrance and the boundary, making access and enclosure parts of one work.
THE MEANING
The sacred takes shape through both a raised threshold and an extended boundary; access and enclosure are built together. What is set apart has an entrance and a form that holds it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that a sacred space must be only open or only protected: the verse gives it both an entrance and a boundary.
THE ROOT
בָּנָה
banah
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build, build up, or establish.
The same verb is used twice: the gate is built, and the wall is built. Elsewhere, the root describes a household being built through children, extending the word beyond stonework to the shaping of a family.
ALSO GROWS
boneh: Builder; one who builds.
בֹּנֶה
The builder’s work here takes in both the entrance and the wall, joining access and boundary.
ʾibbaneh: I may be built up; in Genesis 16:2, used of obtaining children.
אִבָּנֶה
The same root can describe a household taking shape through offspring, extending building language from structures to human continuity.
עֶלְיוֹן
ʿelyon
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up or ascend.
“high” in this verse is ʿelyon. The gate is called upper, using a word from the root for rising. Its height carries the sense of ascent as well as position.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaliyah: Ascent; going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch makes the upward movement within the description of the gate audible.
ʿolah: That which rises; an ascending offering.
עֹלָה
The shared root carries the idea of rising into another word for what ascends.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents houses and temples as spaces deliberately built into forms fit for dwelling.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:THE THREAD
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.The Hebrew אִבָּנֶה (ʾibbaneh, “I may be built up”) uses the same root בנה (banah, “build”) as the repeated building here; the KJV renders it “obtain children.” The connection opens “built” beyond stone: Hebrew also uses it for a household taking shape through offspring.
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