What Does 1 Chronicles 16:26 Mean?
For all the gods of the peoples are nothings, but the LORD makes the heavens.
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
For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.THE KEY
The Hebrew sets “gods” (elohim) beside “idols” (elilim), making their shared opening sound expose the claim of divinity as powerless, while the LORD is known by what he makes.
THE MEANING
Every power presented as divine is measured against the LORD who makes the heavens: a title cannot give substance to what has none. The verse speaks now, where the reality of a power is disclosed by what it can bring into being.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every power called divine has equal reality: the verse names some supposed gods as powerless things and identifies the LORD by the act of making the heavens.
THE ROOT
אֱלִילִים
ʾĕlîlîm
GROWS FROM
אלל
ʾ-l-l
Weakness or worthlessness; the word names something powerless or without value.
“nothings” in this verse is ʾĕlîlîm. Hebrew places elohim, “gods,” beside elilim, “idols,” in a close sound echo sharing the opening consonants. That echo turns the claim of divinity toward the sense of powerless things, just before the LORD is named by the act of making.
ALSO GROWS
ʾĕlîl: A worthless or powerless thing; an idol.
אֱלִיל
The singular form shows the sense beneath the plural: what is called a god can be a thing without power.
ʾĕlîlîm: Worthless or powerless things; idols.
אֱלִילִים
This plural form appears here and in Isaiah 2:8, where the same idols are called the work of human hands.
עָשָׂה
ʿāsâ
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-ś-h
To do or make.
The verse identifies the LORD through an act: he makes the heavens. This root also names deeds and works, keeping the claim connected to effective action rather than title alone.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōśeh: One who does or makes; a maker.
עֹשֶׂה
The related form names the agent, so the LORD’s identity here is disclosed through what he makes.
maʿăśeh: A deed, work, or thing made.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This branch names the result of doing, clarifying the contrast between the made idols and the LORD who makes the heavens.
THE PATTERN
Divine reality is disclosed by creative agency: the idols are not makers, while the LORD makes the heavens.
For all the gods of the nations are nothings; but the LORD made the heavens.Thus shall you say to them, The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth shall lose their way from the earth, and from under these heavens.God, who made the world and all that is within it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not settle in handmade temples.THE THREAD
Their land is also filled with nothings; they bow down to the work of their own hands, to what their own fingers have made.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word, elilim, for the idols, then calls them the work of human hands and fingers. The thing called a god is itself made by people, while the LORD makes the heavens.
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