What Does 1 Chronicles 16:28 Mean?
Give to the LORD, families of the peoples, give to the LORD weight and strength.
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
Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.THE KEY
What you give God is not something he lacks, but the weight and strength your voice recognizes as his.
THE MEANING
You stand among the families of peoples invited to name God’s weight and strength. To give him glory is to treat his nature as weighty in what you say; your words recognize what is already his.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that praise supplies God with a quality he is missing; the giving is recognition, not repair.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
The root כבד (k-b-d; kabad) means “to be heavy” or “to be weighty.”
The word rendered “glory” carries the sense of weight: what is substantial and worthy of honor. Here, giving God glory means recognizing his weight, while strength names the power that belongs with it.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the concrete sense of “glory” visible: what has weight is substantial.
kibbed: honored, treated as weighty
כִּבֵּד
This verb shows how the root’s sense of weight extends into honor: to honor is to accord someone weight.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, praise gives God glory and strength by naming what is already his.
A Psalm of David. Give to the LORD, you sons of the mighty; give to the LORD weight and strength.Bring to the LORD, families of the peoples; bring to the LORD weight and strength.Saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and weight, and blessing.THE THREAD
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.The Hebrew verb translated “honour” comes from the same כבד (k-b-d; kabad), “to be heavy, weighty,” root as kavod, “glory.” That shared root makes the call to give God glory concrete: it means according him weight in speech.
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