What Does 2 Chronicles 27:5 Mean in the King James?
He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.
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 word rendered “pay” carries the sense of “return,” so victory becomes a recurring flow of wealth from the defeated to the victor.
THE MEANING
Here, power outlasts the battle: it continues as silver, wheat, and barley transferred to Jotham year after year. The text measures the cost in material goods and names the transfer across three years.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A victory is only a moment of force; here it becomes a sustained claim on the defeated people’s resources.
THE ROOT
הֵשִׁיבוּ
hēshîvû
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn back, return.
The verb translated as “pay” literally carries the sense of returning something. The tribute is pictured as wealth flowing back to the victor, and its repetition makes that return last beyond the battle.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turned back, returned.
שָׁב
This form makes the underlying motion plain: what goes out can come back.
meshûvah: Turning away, backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can describe a turning in the wrong direction, showing how much depends on what, or whom, the movement returns toward.
וַיֶּחֱזַק
vayyeḥĕzaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm, prevail.
“prevailed” in this verse is vayyeḥĕzaq. The verse describes Jotham as becoming strong over the Ammonites. This root also carries the sense of strengthening or holding fast, so the victory becomes a grip with material consequences that continue for years.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This branch shows the quality behind the verb: the prevailing comes from strength established over another.
ḥizzēq: Strengthened, made strong.
חִזֵּק
The same root can describe strength being applied or reinforced, echoing how the victory sustains a continuing claim.
THE PATTERN
Rule becomes materially visible through the goods and dues it requires.
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.THE THREAD
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.The verb rendered as “rendered” is הֵשִׁיב (hēshîv, “returned”), from שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back, return”); both passages describe tribute as goods returned to a victor. The parallel opens Jotham’s payment as part of a recurring pattern in which political power moves wealth back toward the ruler.
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