What Does 2 Chronicles 34:4 Mean in the King James?
And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.
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 images set above the altars are cut down, pulverized, and scattered over the graves of those who sacrificed to them: the verse turns elevation into burial.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a complete dismantling in view: altars fall, raised images are cut down, and carved and cast images are broken, ground fine, and scattered over the graves of those who sacrificed to them. What is set above people ends as dust laid among the dead; no sacred form remains intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is elevated and served acquires permanence: the images are cut down, crushed, and scattered as dust.
THE ROOT
וְהֵדַק
wəhēdaq
GROWS FROM
דקק
d-q-q
To make fine by crushing; to pulverize.
“made dust” in this verse is wəhēdaq. The verb describes more than breaking: it reduces the images to fine matter. A related adjective means fine or thin, revealing the degree of reduction, the formed image loses its recognizable shape and the stature attached to it.
ALSO GROWS
daq: Fine, thin, or small.
דַּק
This form names the fine scale reached through crushing; the images are reduced until their carved form is no longer intact.
daqqah: Fine, faint, or delicate, as in the “still small voice” of 1 Kings 19:12.
דַּקָּה
The same root can describe something slight or barely perceptible; here, what stood above the altars is reduced to that fine scale.
הַבְּעָלִים
habbəʿālîm
GROWS FROM
בעל
b-ʿ-l
To own or possess; as a noun, master, owner, or husband.
Baalim carries the sense of lords or masters within its name. The verse makes the reversal physical: what is named as possessing authority is cut down and turned into dust.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Master, owner, or husband.
בַּעַל
Baalim is the plural form of this word, so the altars are named for lords or masters; the verse then shows their images dismantled.
bəʿūlāh: Married or possessed; rendered “married” in Isaiah 62:4.
בְּעוּלָה
This related form retains the root’s sense of being claimed or possessed, sharpening the contrast with the pulverized images that can no longer claim mastery.
THE PATTERN
What is treated as sacred power can be stripped of its form and made unusable.
And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.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 he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.The Hebrew root דקק (daqaq, “to crush fine”) lies behind “ground it to powder” in Exodus and “made dust” here. Exodus reduces a calf to powder; this verse reduces images to fine matter and scatters them on graves, carrying the loss of form through to burial among the dead.
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