2 Chronicles 1:9
in 2 Chronicles 1Now, O LORD God, let Your promise to my father David be fulfilled. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now, O Jehovah God, let thy promise unto David my father be established; for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.
KJV
Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established: for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.
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This verse in 2 Chronicles 1
Commentary
4 notes on this verseLet thy promise - דברך debarcha, thy word; פתגמך pithgamach, Targum. It is very remarkable that when either God or man is represented as having spoken a word then the noun פתגם pithgam is used by the Targumist; but when word is used personally, then he employs the noun מימרא meymera, which appears to answer to the Λογος of St. John, Joh 1:1, etc.
This site's exposition
Ask, and I will give it to you
on 2 Chronicles 1:7-10
The night vision runs parallel to 1 Kings 3:5-15, and Chronicles compresses it. Chronicles has “a people as numerous as the dust of the earth,” wording Kings does not use. It recalls the promise to Abraham and Jacob that their offspring would be like the dust of the earth.
This site's exposition
let Your promise to
Solomon asks the LORD God to let the promise be fulfilled, the promise of 2 Samuel 7. Henry observes that it concerned the king after David and named no gift of wisdom, yet Solomon needed wisdom for the promise to be fulfilled. Clarke notes the Hebrew reads Your word.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He means the promise of concerning his successor. "In performance of that promise, Lord, give me wisdom. " We do not find that wisdom was any of the things promised, but it was necessary in order to the accomplishment of what was promised, 2 Sam. vii.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
and I shall go forth before this people and come in And also, a king requires a wise heart to know how to judge, and I am young and tender.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַתָּה֙ | ʾatah | now | H6258 → | 433 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהִ֔ים | ʾelohim | God | H430 → | 2601 times |
| יֵֽאָמֵן֙ | yeamen | let it be established | H539 → | 106 times |
| דְּבָ֣רְךָ֔ | devarekha | word your | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| עִ֖ם | ʾim | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| דָּוִ֣יד | david | David | H1732 → | 999 times |
| אָבִ֑י | ʾavi | father my | H1 → | 1212 times |
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אַתָּה֙ | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| הִמְלַכְתַּ֔נִי | himlakhtani | you have made king me | H4427 → | 348 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | over | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| עַ֕ם | ʾam | a people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| רַ֖ב | rav | numerous | H7227 → | 454 times |
| כַּעֲפַ֥ר | kaafar | like [the] dust of | H6083 → | |
| הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | haaretz | the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
עַתָּה֙now
ʾatahH6258 →433 times
יְהוָ֣הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהִ֔יםGod
ʾelohimH430 →2601 times
יֵֽאָמֵן֙let it be established
yeamenH539 →106 times
דְּבָ֣רְךָ֔word your
devarekhaH1697 →1440 times
עִ֖םwith
ʾimH5973 →1050 times
דָּוִ֣ידDavid
davidH1732 →999 times
אָבִ֑יfather my
ʾaviH1 →1212 times
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
אַתָּה֙you
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
הִמְלַכְתַּ֔נִיyou have made king me
himlakhtaniH4427 →348 times
עַל־over
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
עַ֕םa people
ʾamH5971 →1873 times
רַ֖בnumerous
ravH7227 →454 times
כַּעֲפַ֥רlike [the] dust of
kaafarH6083 →
הָאָֽרֶץ׃the earth
haaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
it leads to
- Genesis 15:5
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- Jeremiah 33:22
As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister…
- Genesis 26:4
I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
- Psalms 2:8–9
Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.
- Genesis 15:5
Through
Genesis 13:16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
it leads to
- Numbers 23:10
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
- Genesis 28:14
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through…
- Exodus 32:13
Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will…
- Numbers 23:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
About 2 Chronicles
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.