What Does 2 Chronicles 35:3 Mean in the King James?
And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,
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 holy thing does not have to stay on your shoulders: once it is set in its place, your hands are free for service.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of a sacred thing reaching its place: it no longer occupies your shoulders, and your service of God and people remains. What is set down is not abandoned; the work changes from carrying the ark to serving those around you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that reverence requires you to keep carrying what belongs in its place dissolves here: the ark is still holy when it is no longer on your shoulders.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
massaʾ
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
nasaʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
The burden is something borne, not a permanent identity. When it reaches its place, the shoulders that carried it are free to serve.
ALSO GROWS
nasaʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb is the seed behind “burden,” making the weight something that can be borne and then set down.
nasiʾ: A prince or leader; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
The same root’s lifting image can describe elevation into a role as well as carrying a load.
עִבְדוּ
ʿivdu
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, labor, or serve.
The instruction to serve is grounded in work, not merely a feeling of devotion. The same root names both the servant and the service, joining the person to the work offered to God and Israel.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: A servant.
עֶבֶד
The person serving shares the root with the work itself.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch makes the verse’s service concrete: it is work directed toward God and the people.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete.
The house is associated with Shelomoh (שְׁלֹמֹה, Solomon), whose name carries the sound of wholeness. David (דָּוִד, David), named as his father, carries the nature of דּוֹד (dod, beloved); the ark’s resting place is spoken of through names of wholeness and belovedness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, welfare, or peace.
שָׁלוֹם
The name of the house’s builder echoes wholeness, fitting the ark’s placement in its dwelling.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the movement from a burden on the shoulders to the ark settled in its place.
THE PATTERN
Service to God takes visible form in care for people.
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.THE THREAD
And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.Numbers makes the carrying explicit with the same root, נשׂא (nasaʾ, lift, carry, bear), behind מַשָּׂא (massaʾ, burden). Together, the verses show the sacred object reaching its place while the Levites’ work turns toward serving God and Israel.
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