What Does 1 Chronicles 16:18 Mean?
saying, to you I give the land of Canaan, the measuring cord of your inheritance.
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
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;THE KEY
The “lot” of inheritance is a measured portion, so the promise gives more than land: it marks out a place to belong.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone who receives a place: the land is both Canaan and a portion within an inheritance. The word for “lot” carries the sense of a measured share, making belonging concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your place is accidental or must be seized: here, belonging arrives as a portion given.
THE ROOT
חֶבֶל
ḥevel
GROWS FROM
חבל
ḥ-b-l
Cord or rope; also a measured portion or allotted territory.
“measuring cord” in this verse is ḥevel. The word translated “lot” also names a cord or line used to mark a share. The inheritance is pictured as a portion laid out with boundaries, not a matter of chance.
ALSO GROWS
ḥavalim: Cords or measuring lines.
חֲבָלִים
Psalm 16:6 uses this form for the “lines” that fall in pleasant places, showing how a cord can mark an allotted share.
ḥevlei: Cords or lines of; a construct plural form.
חֶבְלֵי
This form keeps the physical image of cords in view: a portion can be defined by the lines that mark it.
נַחֲלַתְכֶם
naḥalatkhem
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or take possession; in causative forms, to assign an inheritance.
The root joins the act of receiving possession with the lasting inheritance itself. What is given is not only a transfer but a place that becomes yours to possess.
ALSO GROWS
naḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The verb names the receiving side of the promise: the inheritance becomes a possession.
hinḥil: To cause someone to inherit; to assign as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form echoes the verse’s promise of a portion given to its inheritor.
naḥalah: Inheritance or possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun names the enduring share that the act of inheriting establishes.
אֶתֵּן
etten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“I give” in this verse is etten. The promise of giving carries the sense of setting something in place. The land is not only transferred; it is placed as a share within an inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root holds all three shades in the promise: the land is given and set as a portion.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root makes the giving in the verse legible as a gift received.
nittan: Given; set in place.
נִתַּן
This passive form centers what has been placed into someone’s keeping.
THE PATTERN
A promised inheritance takes shape as a portion received, held, or shared.
And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to take hold of it.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us sufficient to have a share in the inheritance of the set-apart ones in the light.THE THREAD
For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the measuring cord of his inheritance.The same language of allotment turns around: the LORD’s portion is Jacob, the lot of his inheritance. The verse says not only that a people receives an inheritance, but that the people themselves are God’s allotted share.
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