What Does 1 Chronicles 22:15 Mean?
Moreover, there are workers with you in abundance, hewers and craftsmen of stone and wood, and every skilled man for every kind of work.
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
Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.THE KEY
Here, wisdom is not only what someone knows; it is what skilled hands can shape from stone and timber.
THE MEANING
The work before you is met by many kinds of skill. Some hands hew stone, others work timber, and practiced minds serve every kind of task. Wisdom appears here in work that can be seen and touched.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a worthy work depends on one gifted person gives way to a picture of ability distributed among many hands.
THE ROOT
חָכָם
ḥākām
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
To be wise or skillful.
“skilled men” in this verse is ḥākām. The Hebrew word for these skilled workers belongs to the same root family as the word for wisdom. The verse places wisdom in practiced hands: their knowledge takes shape in stone, timber, and useful work.
ALSO GROWS
ḥokhmāh: Wisdom or skill.
חָכְמָה
The shared root shows that the workers’ craft is a form of wisdom made visible.
ḥăkhāmîm: Wise or skilled people.
חֲכָמִים
This form names people by the same quality the verse sees in its craftspeople: wisdom expressed as practiced ability.
חֹצְבֵי
ḥōṣəvê
GROWS FROM
חצב
ḥ-ṣ-b
To hew, quarry, or cut stone.
The hewers’ work begins with stone that must be cut before it can serve the building. The root gives this craft a subtractive movement: shaping comes through removing material, so the form emerges from what is cut away.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṣav: To hew or quarry.
חָצַב
This verb names the action carried by the workers in the verse.
ḥāṣûv: Hewn or cut out.
חָצוּב
This form describes stone shaped by the hewing that makes it ready for use.
THE PATTERN
Consequential building is carried by many kinds of skill brought to a shared task.
He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the carver, and of the designer, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any work, and of those who devise designs.So we built the wall, and all the wall was tied together to half of it, for the people had heart to work.There are portions of gifts, but the same breath.THE THREAD
He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the carver, and of the designer, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any work, and of those who devise designs.The word translated “cunning” in both passages comes from the root חכם (ḥ-k-m), meaning to be wise or skillful. Together, the verses show wisdom as something practiced through the hands across many kinds of work.
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