What Does 2 Chronicles 3:3 Mean in the King James?
Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
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
What the verse calls instruction also carries the sense of laying a foundation: the house begins with an established pattern made visible in its measurements.
THE MEANING
The house of God takes shape through definite proportion: its length and breadth are measured, not left indistinct. Here, instruction includes the foundational order that gives the dwelling its form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the idea that sacredness is formless: the house of God is described through exact length and breadth.
THE ROOT
הוּסַד
hûsad
GROWS FROM
יסד
To found, establish, or lay a basis.
The word rendered “instructed” carries the root sense of being founded or established. The measurements make that foundation concrete: the house’s form is part of the instruction.
ALSO GROWS
yesod: Foundation or basis.
יְסוֹד
It makes the foundational sense in the verse explicit: the house’s dimensions belong to its basis.
mosad: Foundation or established structure.
מוֹסָד
It echoes the movement from a received basis to a structure that can be built.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shlomo
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
Solomon’s name carries the sound and root of shalom, wholeness. Beside the measured house, the name connects its ordered form with completeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It gives the name its sense of wholeness alongside the house’s defined proportions.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
It shows the same root describing a state of completeness, not just a name.
לִבְנוֹת
livnot
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or establish a structure.
The verb makes the house a formed thing, brought into shape. Hebrew also connects this root with ben, “son,” so building and the continuation of a household share a word-family.
ALSO GROWS
banah: To build.
בָּנָה
It is the action named in the verse: giving the house a form.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
Its connection to the build-root opens a sense of a household as something built across generations.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling set apart for God takes form through a received pattern made concrete in measure.
According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.THE THREAD
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.The foundation language in Isaiah shares the root יסד (y-s-d) with the word rendered “instructed” here. The measured house rests on an established basis; Isaiah carries that same root into the image of a sure foundation in Zion.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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