What Does 2 Kings 15:31 Mean in the King James?
And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of 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 line says the deeds it leaves untold are still written somewhere, so what is absent from view is not necessarily absent from the record.
THE MEANING
Your life exceeds the sentence visible in this moment; the rest of what you do remains part of the account. Here, Pekah’s deeds are held in a record beyond this brief line, available to be read.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is not visible in the present account has vanished: the verse says the untold remainder is written.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי
dibrê
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak; a word, matter, or affair.
The Hebrew phrase is “the words or matters of Pekah,” where English gives “acts.” The root holds spoken words and the matters themselves together, presenting deeds as part of an account that can be told and preserved.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or event.
דָּבָר
It shows how “acts” can be rendered as the matters that make up a life.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The same root connects what happens with what can be spoken and recounted.
כְּתוּבִים
ketuvim
GROWS FROM
כ־ת־ב
To write or inscribe.
“Written” points to a record that holds more than this sentence tells. The verse makes the short notice a doorway to a fuller account, where the deeds not named here remain legible.
ALSO GROWS
katav: He wrote.
כָּתַב
This verb is the act that carries the deeds into a lasting record.
mikhtav: A writing or letter.
מִכְתָּב
It shows another form in which what is written can be kept and read.
פֶּקַח
Peqaḥ
GROWS FROM
פ־ק־ח
To open, especially the eyes.
Pekah’s name carries the image of opened sight. Beside “behold, they are written,” it gives the line a resonance of looking at a life through its recorded deeds; the name and “behold” do not share a root.
ALSO GROWS
paqach: To open, especially the eyes.
פָּקַח
It gives Pekah’s name its image of opened sight.
piqqēaḥ: Seeing clearly; open-eyed.
פִּקֵּחַ
It develops the same image of sight carried in the name.
THE PATTERN
What is done remains available to be read and reckoned with beyond the moment of doing.
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.THE THREAD
And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.This verse uses the same Hebrew roots for “acts” (דִּבְרֵי, dibrê) and “written” (כְּתוּבִים, ketuvim). The repeated wording shows how a brief notice can point beyond itself to a fuller written account.
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