What Does 1 Chronicles 15:14 Mean?

So the priests and the Levites set themselves apart to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.

1 Chronicles 15:14 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.

THE KEY

The ark’s ascent begins before it moves: its carriers first become set apart.

THE MEANING

What you carry as sacred moves through the life that bears it; readiness belongs to the carrying itself. Set-apartness is the state of being made distinct for that charge, before the movement begins.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that the sacred object alone determines the encounter; the verse places the bearers’ set-apartness at the threshold of its movement.

THE ROOT

וַיִּתְקַדְּשׁוּ

wayyitqaddəshu

GROWS FROM

ק־ד־שׁ

Set apart, dedicate, make sacred.

“set themselves apart” in this verse is wayyitqaddəshu. The verb describes the carriers setting themselves apart before they bear the ark. Its word-family names both the act of setting apart and the sacred place itself, joining the carriers’ readiness to what they carry.

ALSO GROWS

qādôsh: set apart; sacred

קָדוֹשׁ

This describes the quality expressed by the carriers’ act: they become distinct for the sacred task.

qōdesh: set-apartness; sacredness

קֹדֶשׁ

The shared root joins their preparation to the ark’s sacred character.

miqdāsh: sanctuary; set-apart place

מִקְדָּשׁ

The same seed names a sacred place, connecting the set-apart bearers with the holy space they approach.

לְהַעֲלוֹת

lehaʿalot

GROWS FROM

ע־ל־ה

Go up, ascend; in this form, cause to go up.

“bring up” in this verse is lehaʿalot. The verb is the causative form of “ascend”: the ark is made to rise. Its sibling ⁨עֹלָה⁩ (ʿōlāh), meaning “an offering that rises,” places the ark’s movement within a wider Hebrew vocabulary of ascent.

ALSO GROWS

ʿālāh: go up; ascend

עָלָה

This is the basic movement carried by the verb used for bringing the ark upward.

ʿōlāh: burnt offering; an offering that rises

עֹלָה

The shared root preserves the sense of rising, making the ark’s upward journey part of a broader language of ascent.

THE PATTERN

What is set apart becomes ready to carry what is sacred.

Set apart to me every firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of humankind and of beast; it is mine.

Exodus 13:2 · SDVThe firstborn are set apart as belonging to God, establishing a distinct relation before any further role is named.

So set yourselves apart, and be set apart, for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:7 · SDVThe verse holds the act of setting apart and the resulting set-apart identity together.

If anyone therefore cleanses himself out of these, he will be a vessel for honor, set apart, good for the master's use, prepared for every good work.

2 Timothy 2:21 · SDVA vessel is set apart and made ready for use, echoing the link between prepared bearers and sacred purpose.

THE THREAD

Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?

Psalm 24:3 · SDV

“His holy place” uses the Hebrew root ⁨קדשׁ⁩ (q-d-sh), meaning “set apart,” also found in “sanctified” here. The shared root joins the set-apart carriers with the set-apart space they approach.

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