What Does 2 Kings 19:23 Mean in the King James?
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
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 verb for cutting these trees down also appears in “cut a covenant,” so the boast carries a word that can bind as well as sever.
THE MEANING
Here, reaching the heights becomes a claim to own what is reached: the speaker says the forests can be cut and the borders entered. The verse names that claim as reproach against the Lord, exposing the moment power treats its reach as permission without limit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that whatever I can reach, enter, or destroy is therefore mine to command.
THE ROOT
אֶכְרֹת
ekhrot
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
To cut off or sever.
The verb translated “cut down” comes from כרת, “cut off.” That same root appears in כרת ברית (karat berit), “cut a covenant,” so its reach includes both severing and binding; here it is spoken as a threat to sever.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: To cut a covenant; to establish a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb used for felling the trees can describe a binding agreement, giving “cut” a force that joins as well as divides.
yikkaret: He or it will be cut off.
יִכָּרֵת
This form carries the root’s severing sense into separation, showing how the verse’s threatened cutting belongs to a wider language of cutting away.
מְרוֹם
merom
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
To rise, be high, or be exalted.
The “height” here is מְרוֹם, from רום, a root of rising and being high. The climb therefore carries an echo of elevation or exaltation before the boast turns to cutting down and taking possession.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or elevated.
רָם
This adjective shares the root’s language of height, echoing the lofty ground the speaker claims to reach.
rum: To rise or be exalted.
רוּם
The verb makes the movement inside “height” audible: the speaker’s ascent also reads as a claim to elevation.
THE PATTERN
A creature’s reach is never the source of its own authority; the power that claims ownership remains bounded and answerable.
Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.The word for “height” here is מְרוֹם (merom), from רום (rum); Isaiah uses that same root in “the haughtiness of men.” The echo sets the speaker’s climb beside the lowering of human elevation, while the LORD alone is exalted.
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