What Does 1 Chronicles 15:28 Mean?
Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the ram's horn, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding with psalteries and harps.
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
Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the instruments are making the ark’s ascent heard: this is a movement the whole people can hear.
THE MEANING
You are inside a movement carried together: all Israel lifts the ark of the LORD’s covenant, and the sound makes the gathering audible. Shouts, horns, trumpets, cymbals, psalteries, and harps accompany the ascent; devotion fills the air.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that reverence must be quiet: this procession is marked by shouts and instruments.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁמִיעִים
mashmiʿim
GROWS FROM
שמע
hear, listen
The Hebrew word means “making heard” or “sounding,” so the instruments do more than fill the air: they make the procession audible. The same root joins hearing to what is heard, opening a connection between sound and response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear; hear and respond when the context calls for a response
שְׁמַע
The same root names the hearing that can become a response to the LORD.
shemuʿah: a report or tidings, something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows the root’s range from hearing to the message that reaches the hearer.
מַעֲלִים
maʿalim
GROWS FROM
עלה
go up, ascend
“brought up” in this verse is maʿalim. The same root gives עֲלִיָּה (aliyah), “ascent,” and עֹלָה (olah), “rising offering.” Here all Israel shares in the ark’s upward movement, with the music carrying that ascent into the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
It makes the upward motion within “brought up” explicit.
olah: a rising offering, commonly rendered “burnt offering”
עֹלָה
Its name comes from the same “go up” root, echoing the verse’s language of ascent.
THE PATTERN
When a people carry what binds them to God together, their shared movement becomes audible.
Praise him with the thrust of the ram's horn; praise him with the harp and the lyre.And they sang back to one another in praise, extending the hand in thanks unto the LORD, for he is good, for his faithful love endures for the ages toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.And when they heard this, they lifted up their voice to God with one passion and said, "Master, you are God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.The Hebrew “hear” here is שְׁמַע (shema), from שמע, the same root behind “making a noise” in the current verse, where the instruments are “making heard.” The procession’s sound reaches the hearing that can become Israel’s response to the LORD.
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