What Does 1 Chronicles 28:13 Mean?
Also for the watches of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of serving the house of the LORD, and for all the vessels for serving in the house of the LORD.
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
Also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the LORD.THE KEY
The verse puts people, labor, and even vessels under the same word for service, making the whole house part of one coordinated act of serving.
THE MEANING
Service appears here as a whole arrangement: people have assigned courses, work is named as service, and the vessels too are connected to that service. Sacred work reaches across roles, labor, and instruments, all belonging to the house of the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacred service belongs only to the visible officiant: the verse includes each course, the work, and the vessels within the service.
THE ROOT
עֲבוֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
to serve, labor, or work
“serving” in this verse is avodah. English can make work and service sound like separate things, but both grow from עבד (avad, serve or work). The verse uses avodah for the service of the house and the vessels, gathering people’s labor and the tools of that labor under one shared purpose.
ALSO GROWS
avad: to serve, work, or labor
עָבַד
This verb shows that the service named here includes the work being done.
eved: servant
עֶבֶד
This word names a person through their relation to service, echoing the verse’s assigned roles.
מַחְלְקוֹת
maḥleqot
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
to divide or apportion
“watches” in this verse is maḥleqot. The courses are portions of a larger arrangement: the work is divided so that service can be carried by distinct groups. English “courses” can hide that sense of apportioning, while the Hebrew word keeps the division audible.
ALSO GROWS
chalaq: to divide or apportion
חָלַק
This verb carries the action behind the ordered divisions of service.
cheleq: a portion or share
חֵלֶק
A course is one share in the larger work of service.
THE PATTERN
A shared purpose takes shape through distinct roles and the work and means entrusted to each.
And they came, every one whose heart lifted him, and every one whom his breath made free-hearted, and they brought the LORD's lifted offering for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all its serving, and for the set-apart garments.There are portions of service, but the same Lord.As each has received a gift, serve it to one another as good stewards of the many-colored favor of God.THE THREAD
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.The same root עבד (avad, serve) appears here as “serve.” In this verse it gathers the many courses, tasks, and vessels into one relation: serving God.
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