What Does 2 Kings 25:16 Mean in the King James?

The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

2 Kings 25:16 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

“Without weight” means the bronze is left unweighed, so the verse names a loss too great for measurement.

THE MEANING

You see the pillars, sea, and bases named as removed, their bronze left unweighed. The loss remains materially real even when its full measure is missing.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that what is unmeasured is weightless: the measurement is absent, but the bronze still has weight.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁקָל

mishqal

GROWS FROM

שקל

sh-q-l

To weigh or weigh out.

“without weight” in this verse is mishqal. The Hebrew word names weight or weighing, while the parallel account says the vessels were left unweighed because they were so many. The phrase preserves an accounting limit: the bronze has weight, but no total is given.

ALSO GROWS

shaqal: To weigh or weigh out.

שָׁקַל

This verb makes the phrase about the missing act of weighing, not bronze without heft.

sheqel: A shekel, a unit of weight and value.

שֶׁקֶל

The same root can name a concrete measure; here, that measure is not recorded.

THE PATTERN

Scripture marks the limits of measurement when the whole exceeds what an account can contain.

And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.

1 Kings 7:47 · KJVThe same bronze vessels are left unweighed because their number exceeds the account’s measure.

Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance: for the weight of the brass could not be found out.

2 Chronicles 4:18 · KJVThe account again describes the bronze as too abundant for its weight to be found.

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

John 21:25 · KJVThe account reaches a limit when the things to be recorded exceed what its container can hold.

THE THREAD

And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.

1 Kings 7:47 · KJV

The same Hebrew root for weighing appears in both verses. This line makes the compressed phrase plain: the bronze is not weightless; it is left unweighed because there is too much to count.

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