Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Chronicles 26:15 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 15. 15And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses.
Read It With
- 2 Chronicles 26:6–26:15
Places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses. Read 2 Chronicles 26:15 within 26:6–26:15. The complete unit records: Uzziah defeats Philistines and Arabians, receives Ammonite tribute, fortifies Jerusalem, digs wells, supports livestock and farming, organizes a large army, and equips new engines of war.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The achievement catalogue integrates agriculture and defense but repeatedly magnifies royal strength before the turning point. In this exact position, the line beginning “And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the…” places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses.
Follow the Context
- Uzziah defeats Philistines and Arabians, receives Ammonite tribute, fortifies Jerusalem, digs wells, supports livestock and farming, organizes a large army, and equips new engines of war.
- The achievement catalogue integrates agriculture and defense but repeatedly magnifies royal strength before the turning point.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the…”
In plain language: Places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses.
The line beginning “And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the…” places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses.
Why it matters: The wording carries a material literary, historical, temple, royal-power, violence, ethnic, illness, gender, exile, reception, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Engineering, farming, military success, and fame do not establish moral greatness or authorize imperial expansion and weapons worship.
What Remains True
Places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses. This concrete detail supports a bounded truth: Faithful memory tells the truth about worship and power together: it preserves covenant hope while naming labor, victims, institutional limits, human agency, and uncertainty.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because this verse places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses, keep it inside 26:6–26:15, compare its Samuel-Kings relationship honestly, protect affected people from coercion or stigma, and apply only the accountable principle the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain why 2 Chronicles 26:15 places engineered arrow and stone devices on Jerusalem's defenses. Use 26:6–26:15, paraphrase “And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the…,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Chronicles 26:6–26:15 — Campaigns, towers, farms, and weapons make Uzziah strongSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
2 Chronicles 26:15 remains within this thought-unit limit: The war notices, totals, and mechanical description are abbreviated and difficult to correlate externally; 'engines' should not be anachronistically imagined as modern artillery.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Chronicles 26:6–26:15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:6–26:15
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 2 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 26:6–26:15, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗