What Does 2 Chronicles 34:20 Mean in the King James?
And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king’s, saying,
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
Here, authority shows its strength by entrusting the search to people with different responsibilities.
THE MEANING
When a word presses on the present, concern can become shared inquiry through people with different responsibilities. The king’s command moves through a priest, officials, a scribe, and a servant, so the question enters a circle of responsibility.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that seeking understanding weakens authority: here, authority is expressed by commissioning others to seek the word’s meaning.
THE ROOT
וַיְצַו
vayetsav
GROWS FROM
צוה
To command, charge, or commission.
“commanded” in this verse is vayetsav. The command carries a charge into action by naming who will carry it. Its root connects an order with the responsibility entrusted to those who receive it.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: Commandment or instruction.
מִצְוָה
The same root extends a command into an instruction that carries responsibility.
tsav: A command or precept.
צַו
This form makes the root’s sense of a direct charge audible in the king’s act of commissioning.
עֶבֶד
eved
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“servant” in this verse is eved. The verse names Asaiah through service, placing him within a relationship of work and responsibility. The same root reaches both the person who serves and the service itself.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To work or serve.
עָבַד
The verb shows the action held inside the title “servant.”
avodah: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
The shared root connects the named servant to the work and responsibility carried out in service.
THE PATTERN
A weighty matter moves toward understanding through responsibility shared among trusted people.
And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.THE THREAD
Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.The next verse gives the commissioned people their task: to enquire about the words of the found book. The list of names becomes a shared search for what those words mean and demand.
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