What Does 2 Chronicles 31:1 Mean in the King James?
Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
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 dismantling ends with each person returning to his own possession, so removal leads back to belonging.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now through a sequence: images are broken, groves cut down, and high places and altars thrown down across Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Then the people return, each to his possession and city; the passage holds destruction and return together, ending in concrete belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that tearing down what has taken the center leaves only emptiness: the verse ends with each person back in his own possession and city.
THE ROOT
אֲחֻזָּתוֹ
ʾăḥuzzātô
GROWS FROM
אחז
to grasp, take hold, possess
The word translated “possession” carries the sense of a holding, something grasped or held. After the altars and high places are pulled down, each person returns to his own holding: the ending is not vacancy but a return to what belongs to him.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḥaz: to take hold, seize, possess
אָחַז
This verb exposes the action beneath “possession”: something held or taken hold of.
ʾăḥuzzāh: holding, possession, landholding
אֲחֻזָּה
This is the noun form behind “his possession,” making the return a return to each person’s own holding.
וַיָּשׁוּבוּ
wayyāshūvū
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
to turn back, return
English “returned” can sound like travel alone, while שׁוּב (shuv, turn back or return) holds the turning itself. Here, after the structures are toppled, the turn carries the people back to their cities and holdings.
ALSO GROWS
tĕshūvāh: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the turning in “returned” visible: the movement bends back toward a place or relation.
mĕshūvāh: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
The root can name a turn in different directions; here, the people turn back toward their own cities and holdings.
THE PATTERN
Removing what occupies a rival place makes return to rightful belonging possible.
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.THE THREAD
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;Both verses use שׁוּב (shuv, to turn back or return). Deuteronomy names return to the LORD; this verse shows return taking concrete shape as people go back to their own cities and holdings.
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