What Does 2 Kings 18:15 Mean in the King James?
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house.
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 Hebrew verb for “gave” also means “put” or “set”: the silver is relocated from both the sacred house and the royal treasury into another’s hands.
THE MEANING
A demand can reach into what is held sacred and what is held as public wealth at once. Here, all the silver in both houses changes hands. “Gave” names the transfer without saying that the surrender is willing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sacred wealth is automatically beyond a ruler’s reach.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, put, set, or grant.
“gave” in this verse is vayyitten. The root holds giving and placing together. Here, the silver is moved from two storehouses into another’s possession; the same root can also name a gift or grant.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, put, or set.
נָתַן
The dictionary form retains the concrete sense of placing something in another’s possession, making the silver’s movement visible beneath “gave.”
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This gift noun grows from the same root, while the surrounding demand makes the cost of this particular transfer plain.
THE PATTERN
Imperial power can claim the temple store and the royal treasury in the same sweep.
So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.THE THREAD
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.The Hebrew word translated “giveth” comes from the same root, נתן (n-t-n; natan), as “gave” here. Deuteronomy names the capacity to gain wealth as something given; this verse shows wealth being placed in another ruler’s hands.
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