What Does 1 Chronicles 16:15 Mean?
Remember his covenant for the ages, the word he commands to a thousand generations.
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
Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;THE KEY
“Be mindful” grows from the same root as “remembrance”: the covenant is kept present across generations, not left behind in the past.
THE MEANING
You are within a covenant whose word reaches beyond one lifetime, into generation after generation. Remembering keeps that promise present now; its reach is measured in a thousand generations.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The promise is not limited to the first people who hear it, and time does not use it up.
THE ROOT
זִכְרוּ
zikhru
GROWS FROM
זכר
To remember, recall, or keep in mind.
The Hebrew verb translated “be mindful” is an imperative form of זכר, “to remember.” The same root forms words for remembrance and memorial, linking the act of remembering with something kept present across time.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: Remembrance; memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial makes remembrance tangible, illuminating how the covenant is held present rather than treated as a vanished event.
zēkher: Remembrance; mention.
זֵכֶר
This branch connects remembering with keeping something in view and in speech, fitting a word carried through generations.
THE PATTERN
Covenant remembrance carries a promise beyond the lifetime of any one generation.
Perceive therefore that the LORD your God is God, the steady God, who guards the covenant and faithful love for those who love him and guard his commands to a thousand generations.He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.To make faithful love with our fathers, and to remember his set-apart covenant;THE THREAD
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.The same זכר root appears in God’s promise to remember the covenant, showing remembrance as more than passive recall: it keeps the covenant present across time. The call to remember here echoes that same word in God’s own promise.
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