What Does 2 Chronicles 7:8 Mean in the King James?

Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

2 Chronicles 7:8 · 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 feast makes a people spread from Hamath to Egypt present as one congregation.

THE MEANING

The verse presents shared sacred time as a way the whole people becomes visible together. The congregation reaches from Hamath to the river of Egypt: distance does not erase its togetherness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that sacred belonging is only for a nearby circle; the feast holds the whole land in view.

THE ROOT

קָהָל

qāhāl

GROWS FROM

קהל

q-h-l

To assemble or gather as a community.

English “congregation” can sound like an organization; ⁨קָהָל⁩ names people gathered together. Here, the verse pictures all Israel as an assembled people across the land’s full span.

ALSO GROWS

qāhāl: Assembly; gathered community.

קָהָל

This is the noun behind “congregation,” showing that the people are present together, not merely counted across a territory.

haqhel: Assemble; gather the people.

הַקְהֵל

This related form uses the same root for the act of bringing people together, making the assembly in this verse something gathered.

הֶחָג

heḥāg

GROWS FROM

חגג

ḥ-g-g

To celebrate or keep a festival.

English “kept the feast” can sound like observing a date; ⁨חָג⁩ names the festival, while ⁨חָגַג⁩ names celebrating it. The feast is enacted shared time, and here that time gathers the whole territory into one congregation.

ALSO GROWS

ḥag: Festival; feast.

חָג

The feast is the shared occasion around which the people become present together.

ḥāgag: Celebrate or keep a festival.

חָגַג

The related verb shows that the feast is not only an occasion on a calendar but a shared act.

THE PATTERN

Shared sacred time gathers people across household and regional boundaries into one assembly.

And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

Exodus 12:6 · KJVThe Passover is enacted by the whole assembly, making a shared observance an act of the gathered people.

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

Deuteronomy 16:16 · KJVThe recurring feasts draw people from across Israel to appear together before the LORD.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Acts 2:5 · KJVPeople from many lands are present together in Jerusalem at the feast, echoing the gathering across the land.

THE THREAD

Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:

Deuteronomy 31:12 · KJV

“Gather” here is ⁨הַקְהֵל⁩ (haqhel), “assemble,” from the same root ⁨קהל⁩ (q-h-l) as “congregation” in the current verse. Deuteronomy names who belongs in the assembly; 2 Chronicles shows that gathered people spanning the land.

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