What Does 2 Chronicles 36:19 Mean in the King James?

And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

2 Chronicles 36:19 · 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 Hebrew word rendered “destroyed” shares a root with “corrupted,” joining the ruin of the vessels to a word-family that also names corruption.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks of a center stripped bare: the house of God is burned, Jerusalem’s wall is broken down, its palaces are consumed by fire, and its valued vessels are destroyed. It names the losses plainly, from sanctuary and defenses to civic grandeur and treasured objects. Jerusalem’s name still carries the language of wholeness beside this devastation.

THE ROOT

לְהַשְׁחִית

lehashchit to destroy

GROWS FROM

שחת

sh-ḥ-t

To corrupt, ruin, or destroy.

“destroyed” in this verse is lehashchit to destroy. The root ⁨שחת⁩ holds both corruption and destruction in one word-family. The verse’s destruction of the vessels therefore resonates with language that can also describe something becoming ruined or corrupt.

ALSO GROWS

hishchit: Corrupted or ruined.

הִשְׁחִית

Genesis uses this form for what has become corrupted, showing the same root behind the vessels’ destruction.

mashchit: Destroyer.

מַשְׁחִית

This form names an agent of destruction, extending the root from ruin itself to what brings ruin.

יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

Yerushalayim

GROWS FROM

שלם

sh-l-m

Wholeness, completeness.

“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the seed of ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, wholeness) with the dual ending -ayim. The verse sets that wholeness-bearing name beside a broken wall and palaces consumed by fire.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness.

שָׁלוֹם

This familiar branch makes the city’s name-nature audible amid the described devastation.

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

This branch carries the same seed of completeness, standing in sharp relation to the city’s broken structures.

THE PATTERN

A people’s devastation becomes visible in the ruin of its sacred center and the structures that hold its shared life.

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

Psalm 74:7 · KJVThe sanctuary’s burning and collapse make communal devastation visible through the loss of its sacred center.

And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:

Jeremiah 52:13 · KJVThe fire reaches the sacred house, royal house, and homes across the city, laying out the destruction of shared structures.

And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

Matthew 24:2 · KJVThe temple’s stones being thrown down likewise expresses devastation through the loss of a sacred center.

THE THREAD

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Genesis 6:12 · KJV

The Hebrew word translated “destroyed” here comes from ⁨שחת⁩ (sh-ḥ-t), the same root rendered “corrupted” in Genesis. That shared seed links destruction with corruption in the language itself.

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