What Does 1 Chronicles 27:26 Mean?
Over those who did the work of the field, in the service of the ground, was Ezri son of Chelub.
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 over them that did the work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub:THE KEY
The Hebrew calls tilling the ground avodah, service, so cultivation is framed as work rendered to the soil.
THE MEANING
Your work with the ground is service directed toward its cultivation, with responsibility held by a named overseer. Ezri means “my help,” so the role overseeing this work carries the language of aid.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The ground is only material to extract from, and work with it has no character beyond output.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹדַת
avodat
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work, serve, or cultivate; labor rendered in service.
The Hebrew construct עֲבֹדַת (avodat, “work or service of”) comes from עבד, the root behind both working and serving. English separates tillage from service, while this phrase holds them together: cultivating the ground is a form of service.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To work, serve, or till.
עָבַד
The verb is used for cultivating the garden in Genesis 2:15, linking fieldwork here with service.
avodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבוֹדָה
This noun keeps the same service-and-labor range visible in the verse’s phrase for tillage.
אֲדָמָה
adamah
GROWS FROM
אדם
The Hebrew word-family connects soil with the human, holding ground and human origin together.
אֲדָמָה (adamah, “ground, soil”) belongs to the word-family of אָדָם (adam, “human, ground-being”). The ground being cultivated is not linguistically separate from human life; the words keep soil and humanity in one family.
ALSO GROWS
adam: Human; ground-being.
אָדָם
The shared word-family links the human with the soil being cultivated.
adom: Red, ruddy.
אָדֹם
The related color word echoes the reddish earth associated with soil.
עֶזְרִי
Ezri
GROWS FROM
עזר
Help, aid, or support.
עֶזְרִי (Ezri, “my help”) carries aid in the overseer’s name. The verse places this name above the work of cultivating the ground, giving the role a language of support.
ALSO GROWS
azar: To help or support.
עָזַר
The verb makes the help contained in Ezri’s name explicit.
ezer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
This noun shows the same root’s language of assistance in a related form.
THE PATTERN
Human work with the ground is framed as service, with cultivation as its task.
And the LORD God took Adam and set him down in the garden of Eden, to serve it and to guard it.Therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to serve the ground from which he was taken.I am the true vine, and my Father is the one who works the soil. Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he lifts away. And every branch that bears, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took Adam and set him down in the garden of Eden, to serve it and to guard it.The Hebrew word עֲבֹדַת (avodat, “work or service of”) in this verse shares the root עבד (avad, “work, serve, till”) with “dress” in Genesis 2:15. That earlier verse pairs cultivation with keeping the garden, opening this fieldwork as service expressed through tending.
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