What Does 2 Chronicles 29:5 Mean in the King James?

And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

2 Chronicles 29:5 · 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

The same Hebrew root names both the Levites setting themselves apart and the house being set apart, while the next command makes that holiness visible by carrying defilement out.

THE MEANING

You are addressed as a hearer who can recognize consecration in action: what defiles the holy place is carried out. The same root binds the people and the LORD’s house in one movement of setting apart, so holiness belongs to both the people and the space they tend.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the idea that sacredness is only a status while defilement remains untouched.

THE ROOT

הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ

hitqaddeshu

GROWS FROM

קדש

q-d-sh

Set apart, make sacred.

“sanctify” in this verse is hitqaddeshu. Hebrew repeats the same root as the Levites set themselves apart and set the house apart. This root also names the sanctuary, linking holiness to both the people and the space marked for God.

ALSO GROWS

qadosh: Set apart; holy.

קָדוֹשׁ

The people are set apart in the same terms as the quality that marks the holy place.

miqdash: Sanctuary; sacred place.

מִקְדָּשׁ

The sanctuary shares the root of the act of sanctifying, connecting the house’s sacred character to being set apart.

וְהוֹצִיאוּ

vehotsi'u

GROWS FROM

יצא

y-ts-ʾ

Go out, come out, emerge.

The phrase translated “carry forth” is a causative form of the verb “go out”: the Levites make the defilement go out. The grammar gives restoration a direction, showing holiness as what defiles the space is removed.

ALSO GROWS

yatsa: Go out; come out.

יָצָא

The verse turns this movement into an action that takes defilement beyond the holy place.

motsa: Exit; going out; source.

מוֹצָא

This branch carries the same idea of departure, illuminating the passage’s movement from inside the sacred space to outside it.

THE PATTERN

Consecration becomes visible as what defiles the sacred space is removed.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Isaiah 1:16 · KJVThe passage joins cleansing with putting away what defiles, making removal part of renewed life.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Ezekiel 36:25 · KJVCleansing appears as the removal of filthiness and idols from the reader’s life.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1 · KJVThe verse links cleansing from filthiness with holiness, as this passage links setting apart with carrying defilement out.

THE THREAD

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Exodus 3:5 · KJV

The word translated “holy” shares the root of “sanctify” in this verse. Exodus names the ground as set apart; here, that same set-apart quality is enacted through the people and the house, as defilement is carried out.

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