What Does 1 Chronicles 16:24 Mean?
Recount his weight among the nations; his wonders among all the peoples.
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
Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.THE KEY
God’s weight is made known as extraordinary works are recounted across the boundaries between peoples.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a public horizon: God’s weight becomes known as his extraordinary works are recounted among peoples. The telling carries those works beyond a single community, toward all nations.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that God’s glory belongs only within one religious in-group is undone by the verse’s widening reach: among the nations, among all peoples.
THE ROOT
כְּבוֹדוֹ
kevodô
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy; weight or significance.
Kavod (כָּבוֹד, weight or glory) carries the root image of weight: what has substance and consequence. Here, that weight is set beside works that can be recounted among peoples.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
Its sense of heaviness gives the word for glory its image of consequential weight.
kavod: weight, honor, glory
כָּבוֹד
The verse’s glory belongs to this family of weight, something substantial made known.
סַפְּרוּ
sapperu
GROWS FROM
ספר
To count, recount, or give an account.
“Recount” in this verse is sapperu. The verb carries the sense of recounting, giving an account of what has happened. Its family includes words for a book and a number, so “declare” can suggest making the works legible through telling.
ALSO GROWS
saphar: count, recount
סָפַר
This is the verb family behind the command to tell of the works.
sefer: book, scroll
סֵפֶר
A recounting can be preserved as a written account.
mispar: number, count
מִסְפָּר
The shared root links telling with counting or giving an account.
נִפְלְאוֹתָיו
nifla'otav
GROWS FROM
פלא
To be extraordinary or wonderful; to exceed the ordinary.
“marvellous works” in this verse is nifla'otav. The word for these works comes from a root for what is extraordinary. The verse does not present them as private wonders: they are told among peoples, where their unusual character can be encountered.
ALSO GROWS
pele: wonder, marvel
פֶּלֶא
This noun names the extraordinary quality carried by the works in the verse.
nifla: wonderful, extraordinary
נִפְלָא
This form describes what stands beyond the ordinary.
nifla'ot: wonders, extraordinary acts
נִפְלָאוֹת
This plural form is the same family as the verse’s “marvellous works.”
THE PATTERN
God’s works become known across peoples through public telling.
Extend your hands to the LORD, call out to his name, and make his deeds known among peoples.And on that day you will say, Extend your hands to the LORD, call upon his nature, make his doings known among the peoples, and speak aloud that his nature is lifted high.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.THE THREAD
You are the God who makes wonders; you make known your strength among the peoples.“Wonders” in Psalm 77:14 comes from the same root, פלא (pala, to be extraordinary or wonderful), as “marvellous works” here. The psalm also places God’s strength among the people, showing how extraordinary works become publicly known.
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