What Does 1 Chronicles 21:26 Mean?
And David built there an altar to the LORD, and sent up rising offerings and wholeness offerings, and called out to the LORD; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of the rising offerings.
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
And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.THE KEY
The burnt offering is literally an ascent, and heaven answers it by sending fire down.
THE MEANING
A call to the LORD is answered in a visible form: fire upon the altar. In Hebrew, the burnt offering carries the sense of ascent, while the peace offerings share a root with wholeness, joining what rises with what is made whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a call disappears upward into silence: here, the answer comes down as fire.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, rise, ascend.
“sent up” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The burnt offering is named for rising; it belongs to the root meaning “to go up.” The verse answers that upward movement with fire descending from heaven, making ascent and descent the scene’s hidden shape.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, ascend.
עָלָה
This is the verb behind עֹלָה, so the offering’s name carries upward motion.
ʿaliyah: Ascent; an upper room.
עֲלִיָּה
It keeps the same upward movement in the root family, showing that ascent is carried across related words.
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. The Hebrew name shares its root with words for wholeness and being complete. Beside the offering named for ascent, it places wholeness within the scene’s movement toward God.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The shared root lets the peace offering carry the sense of wholeness beneath the English word.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This related form makes the root’s connection to completeness explicit.
קָרָא
qārāʾ
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־א
q-r-ʾ
To call out, summon, proclaim.
“called out to” in this verse is qārāʾ. This root can describe a voiced call, a proclamation, or a public reading. The appeal is not left as an unspoken thought: it becomes a summons that is met by an answer.
ALSO GROWS
qeri'ah: A calling; a reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The shared root links calling to voiced words, giving the appeal an audible, outward quality.
miqra: A proclamation; a convocation or public reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how a call can also summon people together, fitting the verse’s visible response at the altar.
THE PATTERN
Divine fire appears as a visible sign of God’s response at the altar and of God’s consuming presence.
And a fire came out from before the LORD, and ate upon the altar the rising offering and the fat; and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.And when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and devoured the rising offering and the sacrifices, and the weight of the LORD filled the house.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
Then you shall call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the stretching of the finger, and speaking emptiness.Isaiah pairs קָרָא (qara, call) with עָנָה (ʿanah, answer), the same Hebrew roots carried by the call and answer here. Its answer goes further, “Here I am”, showing response as presence.
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