What Does 1 Chronicles 22:1 Mean?
Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the rising offering for Israel.
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
Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.THE KEY
The burnt offering is named for its ascent, so the altar is where what is given rises.
THE MEANING
The house of the LORD God and the altar belong together: the house has a center where Israel’s burnt offering ascends. Its name carries the motion of rising, making the altar more than a structure; it is where an offering is given over and goes up.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
to rise, ascend, or go up
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The Hebrew word for “burnt offering” is עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “ascent” or “that which goes up”), from the verb עלה (ʿālāh, “to ascend”). The name itself gives the offering a direction: what is placed on the altar rises.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: to ascend, go up
עָלָה
This verb is the seed of עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “burnt offering/ascent”), revealing the upward motion carried in the offering’s name.
ʿăliyyāh: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun carries the same root sense of rising, echoing the movement encoded in the burnt offering’s name.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
to slaughter for sacrifice; to sacrifice
The altar’s Hebrew name, מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbēaḥ, “altar”), is formed from זבח (z-b-ḥ), the root for sacrificing. Beside עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “ascent”), it holds two parts of the image together: the place of sacrifice and the offering that rises.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: to sacrifice, slaughter for sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb names the act associated with the altar, making the altar more than a place-name.
zevaḥ: sacrifice, sacrificial offering
זֶבַח
This noun shares the altar’s root and links the place directly to what is sacrificed there.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, an offering is placed before God at an altar or presented as a life given to God.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.Genesis uses the same word עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “burnt offering/ascent”) for what is placed on Noah’s altar. That shared root lets you hear David’s altar as a place where an offering rises.
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