What Does 2 Chronicles 8:4 Mean in the King James?

And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.

2 Chronicles 8:4 · 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.

THE KEY

A barren place can become a structure that holds what its builder means to preserve.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks into the barren places you face: lack of visible structure does not mean nothing can take form there. What is built can hold provision and give open ground lasting capacity.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a barren stretch can only be crossed and cannot sustain anything lasting.

THE ROOT

וַיִּבֶן

vayiven

GROWS FROM

בנה

to build; to establish a structure or household

“built” in this verse is vayiven. The Hebrew repeats this root for Tadmor and the store cities. Its family also includes ben (son), linking building with the continuation of a household: the root opens from raising structures toward establishing what lasts.

ALSO GROWS

binyan: Building or structure

בִּנְיָן

This related noun makes the root’s concrete sense visible: building gives a place durable form.

ben: Son

בֵּן

This related word links the root with the continuation of a household, extending the idea of building beyond walls.

THE PATTERN

Built places give lasting form to what their builders intend to preserve.

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:11 · KJVThe treasure cities preserve Pharaoh’s power, while the verse names affliction as the condition under which they are built.

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Psalm 127:1 · KJVA house and a city endure only through the work that builds and keeps them.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

Matthew 7:24 · KJVThe house gives durable form to the foundation on which its builder acts.

THE THREAD

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Psalm 127:1 · KJV

The Hebrew verb for “build” here shares the root ⁨בנה⁩ (banah) with the building of Tadmor and the store cities. Psalm 127:1 connects construction with keeping: a built place has a purpose, but its endurance depends on what sustains it.

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