What Does 1 Chronicles 22:2 Mean?
And David commanded that the sojourners who were in the land of Israel be gathered together, and he set stonecutters to cut stone for building the house of God.
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 commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.THE KEY
The house of God begins with a double shaping: people are gathered together, and stone is cut into form.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two preparations side by side: resident strangers are gathered, and hewers are appointed to cut stones for God’s house. The house takes shape through people brought together and material deliberately shaped.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that resident strangers stand wholly outside the preparation of God’s house is unsettled by the verse naming their gathering as the work begins.
THE ROOT
לַחְצֹוב
laḥṣov
GROWS FROM
חצב
ḥāṣab: to hew, quarry, or cut stone.
“hew” in this verse is laḥṣov. The same root appears in the appointed hewers, חֹצְבִים (ḥoṣvim), and in the act of hewing, לַחְצֹוב (laḥṣov). The house is not assembled from untouched stone: its material is cut free and shaped for its place.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoṣev: One who cuts or hews stone.
חֹצֵב
The appointed workers carry the same root as the work they perform.
ḥatsivah: The act of cutting stone from its source.
חֲצִיבָה
This branch makes the stonework a process of cutting and shaping, not simply placing finished blocks.
maḥtsevah: A place where stone is cut.
מַחְצֵבָה
The root extends from the workers and their action to the place where building stone is made ready.
לִכְנוֹס
likhnos
GROWS FROM
כנס
kānas: to gather or bring together.
“gather together” in this verse is likhnos. The verb names a bringing together before the stone is shaped. Its related words retain the sense of gathering into an assembly, so the people assembled are part of the house’s preparation.
ALSO GROWS
kinus: A gathering or assembly.
כִּנּוּס
It keeps the communal sense of the verse’s verb audible.
kenes: An assembled gathering.
כֶּנֶס
This related form connects gathering people with forming an assembly.
hitkannes: To gather or assemble oneself.
הִתְכַּנֵּס
The same consonants describe people coming together, echoing the gathering named in the verse.
הַגֵּרִים
haggerim
GROWS FROM
גור
gūr: to sojourn or dwell as a resident alien.
“sojourners” in this verse is haggerim. The word for the strangers names people who reside in a land without native status, not merely people who are unknown. Its root holds dwelling and sojourning together, making their presence in the land part of the verse’s concrete picture.
ALSO GROWS
ger: A person dwelling in a land without native status.
גֵּר
This singular form names the people gathered in the verse.
gar: A person who resides or sojourns.
גָּר
It makes the root’s sense of dwelling visible beneath the translation “strangers.”
megurim: Dwelling places or residences.
מְגוּרִים
This related form connects the resident stranger to the root’s language of dwelling.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling takes shape as people are gathered and material is prepared.
The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman whose heart made them free-hearted to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, heavy stones, and hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the house.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Hear and respond to me, you who pursue alignment, you who seek the LORD. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hollow of the pit you were dug out of.The same root חצב (ḥāṣab, to hew) describes the reader as hewn from rock. Here hands hew stones for God’s house; Isaiah turns that image toward people themselves, making the stonework a picture of origin.
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