What Does 1 Chronicles 15:5 Mean?
Of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the head, and his brothers, a hundred and twenty.
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
Of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twenty:THE KEY
The word translated “chief” grows from “to lift or carry,” framing Uriel’s authority as a weight borne within his kin.
THE MEANING
The verse places Uriel as chief within a body of 120 brethren: leadership is counted among the people, not outside them. His title carries the sense of one lifted to bear weight, so authority remains bound to shared belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that leadership requires separation from those one leads.
THE ROOT
הַנָּשִׂיא
hannāśîʾ
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
nāśāʾ
To lift, carry, or take up.
“head” in this verse is hannāśîʾ. The title nāśîʾ comes from the root nāśāʾ, “to lift or carry.” The word holds leadership together with bearing weight: Uriel is raised to a place of responsibility among his brethren.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or take up.
נָשָׂא
This verb gives the chief’s title its image of responsibility as something carried.
massāʾ: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This related word makes the root’s connection between being raised up and bearing weight tangible.
אוּרִיאֵל
ʾÛrîʾēl
GROWS FROM
אוֹר
ʾôr
Light; to shine.
Uriel joins the light element ʾôr with אֵל (ʾēl), “God”; the name is commonly understood as “light of God” or “God is my light.” A name carrying light stands at the head of this counted group.
ALSO GROWS
ʾôr: Light.
אוֹר
This is the light element in Uriel’s name, giving the chief’s name a nature of illumination.
māʾôr: A light source or luminary.
מָאוֹר
This branch shows light as something that shines forth, echoing the light carried in Uriel’s name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly pictures authority and care as the act of carrying weight.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.Even to old age I AM, and to gray hair I will bear you. I have made, and I will lift, I will bear, and I will slip you free.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.The verb “bear” there comes from נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ), the same root carried in nāśîʾ, “chief,” here. That gives Uriel’s title a concrete edge: his place among the Kohathites belongs to a people entrusted with carrying.
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