What Does 2 Kings 23:12 Mean in the King James?
And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
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 dismantling reaches beyond the altars: even their dust is carried out of the house of the LORD.
THE MEANING
An object can occupy sacred space and still be torn out of it. Here the altar is pulled down, crushed, and its dust carried beyond the house. Even what remains after the destruction is moved away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that standing in a sacred place makes something untouchable; location alone does not secure what stands there.
THE ROOT
וַיָּרָץ
wayyārats
GROWS FROM
רָצַץ
r-ṣ-ṣ
To crush, break in pieces, or oppress.
“brake them down” in this verse is wayyārats. This root reaches from crushing an object to the language of oppression, so the action is forceful reduction, not simply removal. The same root describes a bruised reed in Isaiah 42:3, where the already-crushed reed is not broken further.
ALSO GROWS
rāṣûṣ: Crushed, bruised.
רָצוּץ
This is the word used for the bruised reed in Isaiah 42:3, linking the crushed altar to a vulnerable thing already under strain.
rāṣaṣ: To crush or oppress.
רָצַץ
The same root can describe pressure upon a person as well as force applied to an object.
נָתַץ
nāṯaṣ
GROWS FROM
נתץ
n-t-ṣ
To pull down, demolish, or tear apart.
“beat down” in this verse is nāṯaṣ. This verb names the dismantling of the standing structure before the crushing follows. The two actions carry the removal from the altar itself to its fragments.
ALSO GROWS
nāṯaṣ: To demolish or pull down.
נָתַץ
This is the altar’s first undoing: it no longer stands.
nittāṣ: Pulled down or demolished.
נִתַּץ
The passive form describes a structure in the state of having been dismantled.
קִדְרוֹן
qidrôn
GROWS FROM
קדר
q-d-r
To grow dark or become black.
The name Kidron is commonly connected with the Hebrew root for growing dark. The verse ends by carrying the residue to that named stream, adding a dark shade to the image of what has been removed.
ALSO GROWS
qādar: To grow dark or blacken.
קָדַר
This verbal root gives the place name its association with darkness.
qēder: Darkness or blackness.
קֵדֶר
This related form echoes the dark quality carried in the name Kidron.
THE PATTERN
When a space is profaned, its restoration includes physically clearing out what occupies it.
And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;THE THREAD
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.The Hebrew root רָצַץ (rāṣaṣ, “crush”) appears in both verses: here the altars are crushed, while Isaiah says the bruised reed is not broken further. The same root reveals a distinction between dismantling a destructive structure and sparing something already vulnerable.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us