What Does 2 Chronicles 9:30 Mean in the King James?
And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
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
Solomon’s name and Jerusalem echo the same root of wholeness, placing a wholeness-bearing ruler in a wholeness-bearing city.
THE MEANING
Rule takes form in a particular center and across a particular people: Solomon reigns from Jerusalem over all Israel. The verse also gives that reign a measured span of forty years.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city name echoes the consonants of wholeness, and Solomon’s name carries that same seed. The verse places a ruler bearing that sound-shape in a city bearing it too, with all Israel gathered under his reign.
ALSO GROWS
Shelomoh: Solomon; a name carrying the root of wholeness.
שְׁלֹמֹה
The ruler’s name echoes the root also heard in the city where he reigns.
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the shared consonants of the ruler’s name and the city name.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit beneath the names.
וַיִּמְלֹךְ
Vayyimlokh
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
To be king; to rule.
“reigned” in this verse is Vayyimlokh. English separates the action of reigning from the title of king, while Hebrew holds both in the same root. Here, rule is concrete: it extends over a named people from a named center.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The title and the act of reigning grow from the same root.
malkhut: Kingship, kingdom, or realm.
מַלְכוּת
The root’s reach includes both the ruler’s authority and the realm under it.
THE PATTERN
A reign is made visible by its center, the people or territory it gathers, and the span it fills.
And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.THE THREAD
Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.This naming verse ties Solomon’s name to rest and to the promise of שָׁלוֹם (shalom), wholeness, for Israel. Here, that same wholeness-root echoes in Jerusalem, the place of Solomon’s reign.
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