What Does 2 Chronicles 30:21 Mean in the King James?
And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD.
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
Praise here is not a burst of feeling; it is a community’s daily, audible rhythm.
THE MEANING
Your days can be held in a shared rhythm of gladness and praise: the feast spans seven days, and the song returns each day. Joy has a public sound here, rising through voices and instruments together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that praise is only an inner feeling or a single emotional peak: here it is shared, audible, and renewed day by day.
THE ROOT
מְהַלְלִים
mehalelim
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
To praise, celebrate.
“praised” in this verse is mehalelim. The root הָלַל (halal, praise) keeps praise as an enacted, voiced act, not merely a private mood. The same root can become praise as song, so the Levites’ singing and instruments are praise taking audible form.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise; a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
It names praise as something voiced in song, matching the Levites’ daily celebration.
hallel: Praise or celebration.
הַלֵּל
It links this day-by-day singing to the wider language of public praise.
שִׂמְחָה
simchah
GROWS FROM
שמח
samach
To rejoice, be glad.
The noun שִׂמְחָה (simchah, gladness) belongs to a verb-family for rejoicing, so gladness carries movement and expression, not just a mood. Paired with daily praise, it becomes a shared celebration enacted through song.
ALSO GROWS
samach: To rejoice; to be glad.
שָׂמַח
The verb shows the active quality beneath the feast’s gladness.
sameach: Glad; joyful.
שָׂמֵחַ
The related adjective shows gladness as a quality shared by those gathered.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalem
Wholeness, completeness.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim, Jerusalem) carries the resonance of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), with the ending -ayim echoing the dual. The feast’s gladness and praise gather in a name that evokes wholeness held together.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It opens the name’s resonance with the gathered community’s shared celebration.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
It gives the place-name a quality of completeness that frames the feast’s communal joy.
THE PATTERN
A gathered people make joy audible by returning to praise together.
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.THE THREAD
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.The same root הלל (halal, praise) appears in this call to praise. The scene widens from the feast’s gathered community to every breathing thing, opening the daily song into a life-wide response.
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