What Does 2 Chronicles 35:14 Mean in the King James?
And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.
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 offering rises at the altar while the Levites’ preparation sets the provision in place, two parts of one shared service.
THE MEANING
When one task holds your attention until night, another person can prepare what you cannot pause to provide. Setting food ready belongs to the same shared service as the work at the altar.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only visible, altar-facing work counts as service dissolves here: the Levites’ preparation is named alongside the priests’ offering.
THE ROOT
הֵכִינוּ
hēkhînû
GROWS FROM
כון
Be firm or established; make ready or set in place.
“prepared” in this verse is hēkhînû. The verse uses this same verb for preparing both the Levites’ own portion and the priests’ portion. The root also gives words for what is firm or established, so preparation here means setting needed provision in place for the work to continue.
ALSO GROWS
nakhon: Firm, ready, or established.
נָכוֹן
This is the same root used in Psalm 57:7 for a heart that is “fixed,” linking readiness with being made steady.
makhon: An established place, dwelling, or foundation.
מָכוֹן
This branch shows how what is set in place can become a foundation; the Levites’ preparation supports the priests’ ongoing service.
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
Go up or ascend.
The burnt offering is an “ascending” offering, named from the movement of going up. The verse holds that upward offering beside the Levites’ practical work of setting food in place, joining altar service and provision in one coordinated scene.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the image inside the offering’s name: what is offered rises.
maʿălāh: An ascent, step, or upward slope.
מַעֲלָה
This related word keeps the root’s upward movement visible, clarifying the image carried by the burnt offering.
THE PATTERN
Shared work holds when one group prepares what another group cannot pause to provide.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.The Hebrew word behind “fixed” is נָכוֹן (nakhon, firm or ready), from כון (kun, be firm or established; make ready), the root behind “prepared” here. In both verses, what is made ready is set in place: a heart in one, needed provision in the other.
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