What Does 2 Kings 23:34 Mean in the King James?
And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
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 name Pharaoh imposes still says that YHWH is the one who raises the king.
THE MEANING
Power can install one person, rename him, and remove another from the seat of power. Yet the imposed name Jehoiakim means “YHWH raises,” placing the act of elevation under a source Pharaoh does not name as himself. The verse holds coercive authority and a claim beyond it in the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The authority that gives someone a title is the whole source of that person’s rise.
THE ROOT
אֶלְיָקִים
ʾElyaqim
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise, stand, or be established.
“Eliakim / Jehoiakim” in this verse is ʾElyaqim. Both names grow from the same root: Eliakim means “God raises” or “God establishes,” while Jehoiakim means “YHWH raises” or “YHWH establishes.” Pharaoh changes the divine name within it, but the name he imposes still attributes the raising to God.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root carried in both names: the one named is bound to the language of rising.
heqim: To raise or establish.
הֵקִים
The causative form makes the names’ meaning active: someone raises or establishes the king.
maqom: Place; a standing place.
מָקוֹם
This related word connects standing with having a place, fitting the passage’s question of who places a person on the throne.
וַיַּמְלֵךְ
vayyamlekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
mlk
To reign or be king.
“made king” in this verse is vayyamlekh. The Hebrew uses a causative form: Pharaoh causes Eliakim to reign; he does not merely recognize an existing king. The same root gives Hebrew its words for king and kingdom, showing kingship here as an office conferred through political power.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The person made king is named by the same root as the act of ruling.
mamlakhah: Kingdom or realm.
מַמְלָכָה
The root extends from the ruler to the political domain his appointment governs.
THE PATTERN
Names assigned by authority can place a person publicly and interpret the nature associated with them.
And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego.And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,THE THREAD
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.The Hebrew verb translated “raiseth up” comes from the same root carried by Eliakim and Jehoiakim. Here that raising places the poor among princes and gives them a throne, opening the name’s claim beside Pharaoh’s appointment.
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