What Does 1 Chronicles 15:26 Mean?
And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that they slaughtered seven bulls and seven rams.
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 it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.THE KEY
The verse places help before sacrifice: the offering is a response to aid already given.
THE MEANING
When you bear what is entrusted to you, this verse places God’s help alongside the carrying itself. The Levites’ response is concrete: seven bullocks and seven rams are sacrificed. Help comes first in the sequence; the offering follows as a response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that help must be earned through a costly offering; here, the help comes before the sacrifice.
THE ROOT
עָזַר
ʿāzar
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
Help, support, aid.
“helped” in this verse is ʿāzar. The root names aid that enables people in the work they are carrying. The verse places that aid before the animal sacrifices, so the offering appears as a response within received help.
ALSO GROWS
ʿezer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
The noun shares the root of “helped,” connecting God’s action here with help as a sustaining resource.
ʿozer: One who helps.
עֹזֵר
This branch makes the role implicit in the verse visible: God acts as the helper of those carrying the ark.
נֹשְׂאֵי
nosei
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
Lift, carry, bear.
“lifted” in this verse is nosei. The Hebrew word names the Levites as bearers, from the same root that can name a burden being carried. Their task is a real weight, and the verse explicitly places God’s help alongside it.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
This noun shares the carrying root and makes the weight within the Levites’ work easier to see.
laset: To lift or carry.
לָשֵׂאת
This infinitive comes from the same root as “bare,” keeping the physical act of carrying in view.
וַיִּזְבְּחוּ
vayyizbechu
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
Slaughter an animal as a sacrifice.
“slaughtered” in this verse is vayyizbechu. The verb gives “offered” the concrete sense of slaughtering animals in sacrifice. With seven bulls and seven rams named, the response is materially costly and specific.
ALSO GROWS
zevach: A sacrifice or sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
The noun shares the verb’s root and names the act embodied in the offerings here.
mizbeach: An altar, the place of sacrifice.
מִזְבֵּחַ
This related word links the offering to the altar where sacrifice is made.
THE PATTERN
God’s help and provision precede and sustain the service and offering that follow.
My help comes from the LORD, who makes heavens and earth.And God is able to make all favor overflow toward you, so that you, always holding all you need in everything, may overflow into every good work.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
My help comes from the LORD, who makes heavens and earth.The Hebrew word for “my help,” עֶזְרִי (ezri, “my help”), shares the עזר root with “helped” in this verse. Chronicles shows the help meeting those who carry the ark; the psalm names the LORD, maker of heaven and earth, as the source of help.
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