What Does 1 Chronicles 16:1 Mean?
They brought up the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent David had stretched out for it, and they sent up rising offerings and wholeness offerings before the face of God.
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
So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God.THE KEY
At the center, the verse pairs עֹלוֹת (ascending offerings) with שְׁלָמִים (wholeness offerings), joining ascent and wholeness before God.
THE MEANING
The ark of God occupies the center of the tent, and the offerings stand before God. The verse holds ascent and wholeness together, showing God’s presence as the center where both meet.
THE ROOT
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
Go up, rise, ascend.
“sent up” in this verse is ʿolot. עֹלוֹת belongs to עלה, “to ascend,” and the verb translated “offered” in this verse comes from the same root. English separates the action from its name; Hebrew makes the offerings themselves something that rises.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, rise, or ascend.
עָלָה
This is the root verb behind the offering’s name and reveals its upward movement.
ʿōlāh: An ascending offering, rendered “burnt offering.”
עֹלָה
This singular form shares the root of the verse’s plural עֹלוֹת.
heʿĕlāh: To raise or cause to ascend; to offer up.
הֶעֱלָה
This causative form shows how the root describes bringing something upward as an offering.
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; make whole.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. שְׁלָמִים belongs to the same root family as שָׁלוֹם, wholeness. The verse pairs ascent with wholeness, giving the offerings a sense beyond the absence of conflict.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch makes the wholeness within the name of the offering audible.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form shares the root and shows that the offering’s name belongs to a family of completeness.
THE PATTERN
The approach to God is pictured through offerings that rise and express wholeness.
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who made the burnt offerings rise, and slaughtered oxen as wholeness offerings to the LORD.If his drawing near is a wholeness offering from the herd, male or female, he brings it near whole before the LORD.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.Genesis 8:20 uses the same עלה family in both “offered” and “burnt offerings”: the verb and offering carry the root of rising. That makes the ascent in this verse audible, while שְׁלָמִים adds the connected note of wholeness.
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