What Does 1 Chronicles 15:1 Mean?
And David made him houses in the city of David, and set firm a place for the ark of God, and stretched out a tent for it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.THE KEY
A place can be firmly prepared for the ark while its covering is still a tent.
THE MEANING
The beloved makes a place for God’s ark and stretches a tent over it. You can see something made ready to hold what is sacred without being enclosed in a permanent form. The place is prepared; the covering remains a tent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s presence requires a finished, permanent dwelling.
THE ROOT
מָקוֹם
maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise, stand, or be established.
English “place” sounds like a location; maqom carries the sense of a standing-place, from qum (קום), “to rise or stand.” The ark is given ground prepared to bear what it holds.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand
קוּם
The place is a standing-place: space prepared to hold the ark.
heqim: Raise up or establish
הֵקִים
The same root can describe making something stand, giving “place” a sense of established ground.
וַיָּכֶן
vayyakhen
GROWS FROM
כון
To be firm, stable, or established.
“set firm” in this verse is vayyakhen. “Prepared” carries the force of making firm or setting in place. The verse locates stability in the prepared space, even while the ark’s covering remains a tent.
ALSO GROWS
kun: Be firm, stable, or established
כּוּן
This root gives “prepared” the sense of making a space firm enough to receive the ark.
hekin: Prepare or make ready
הֵכִין
This related form shows preparation as establishing what is ready to be used.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved.
David’s name carries belovedness into the scene: the beloved makes homes and prepares a place for the ark. The name and the act meet in the work of making room.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved or kinsman
דּוֹד
This word carries the belovedness heard in David’s name.
dodim: Loves or caresses
דּוֹדִים
This related form expresses love as a lived bond, echoing the name’s relational nature.
THE PATTERN
A place is made ready for God’s dwelling even when its covering remains a tent.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I settle in a house of cedars, but the ark of God settles within curtains.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.THE THREAD
Until I find a place for the LORD, dwelling places for the Mighty One of Jacob.“Place” here is מָקוֹם (maqom), the same Hebrew word used in 1 Chronicles 15:1, from קום (qum), “to rise or stand.” This verse makes explicit the search compressed into the prepared place: finding a dwelling for the LORD.
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