What Does 2 Chronicles 34:8 Mean in the King James?

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

2 Chronicles 34:8 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verb translated “repair” is ⁨חזק⁩ (ḥazaq, strengthen): first the land and house are cleared, then the house is made firm again.

THE MEANING

Clearing and repair belong to one movement: what is made clean is ready to be strengthened. The house of the LORD is a dwelling that can be restored through shared, purposeful work.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a defiled dwelling is beyond repair is undone here: after cleansing, the house can still be strengthened.

THE ROOT

לְחַזֵּק

ləḥazzēq

GROWS FROM

חזק

Be strong; strengthen or make firm.

Beneath “repair” is the sense of strengthening what has weakened. The work restores the house’s firmness, not only its appearance.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.

חָזָק

The same root connects repair with the strength the house is meant to regain.

maḥazīq: One who holds fast or maintains.

מַחֲזִיק

What is made firm can hold together and endure.

לְטַהֵר

ləṭahēr

GROWS FROM

טהר

Be clean or pure; purify.

“purged” in this verse is ləṭahēr. The verse uses the same cleansing movement for both the land and the house. Cleansing prepares the dwelling for the strengthening that follows.

ALSO GROWS

ṭāhōr: Clean, pure.

טָהוֹר

The root names the cleanness that follows the purging.

ṭohŏrāh: Purification, cleanness.

טָהֳרָה

The house is not discarded after it is cleared; purification makes room for its restoration.

שָׁלַח

shālaḥ

GROWS FROM

שלח

Send forth, release, let go.

The people are sent outward toward the work of strengthening the house. Sending turns the intention to restore into movement.

ALSO GROWS

shālūaḥ: Sent, dispatched.

שָׁלוּחַ

The root’s form for one sent echoes the people dispatched to carry out the repair.

Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a watercourse also called Siloam.

שִׁלֹחַ

The sent watercourse echoes the movement of sending in this verse: what is sent forth reaches the place where restoration is needed.

THE PATTERN

What is cleared or opened is renewed into a sound dwelling.

He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.

2 Chronicles 29:3 · KJVThe house is opened and its damaged doors are repaired, joining renewed access with practical restoration.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10 · KJVCleansing and renewal meet within the person, echoing the clearing and strengthening of a dwelling.

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Ephesians 2:21 · KJVThe dwelling becomes a temple as its parts are fitted together and grow into a sound whole.

THE THREAD

Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.

2 Chronicles 32:5 · KJV

Both passages use ⁨חזק⁩ (ḥazaq, strengthen or make firm) for work that restores what is damaged. There, the root appears with a broken wall and the repair of Millo; here, it names the strengthening of the LORD’s house.

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