What Does 1 Chronicles 28:14 Mean?
He gave of gold by weight for the things of gold, for all the vessels of every kind of serving; silver also for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all the vessels of every kind of serving.
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
He gave of gold by weight for things of gold, for all instruments of all manner of service; silver also for all instruments of silver by weight, for all instruments of every kind of service:THE KEY
The word translated “service” also means work, binding sacred purpose to measured, material labor.
THE MEANING
The work that gives your life its shape is not abstract: it takes form through actual tools, resources, and acts fitted to their use. What is set apart for service is counted and weighed, letting the sacred appear in the ordinary measure of what is given and used.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Sacred service is not weightless or detached from material life; it takes tools and resources apportioned to real uses.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“serving” in this verse is avodah. The Hebrew word עֲבֹדָה (avodah, work or service) joins labor with service rendered at the sanctuary. The verse’s service is therefore not an abstraction: it takes material form through tools and measured provision.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavad: To work or serve.
עָבַד
This verb carries the same work-and-service sense into the action behind the verse’s provision.
ʿeved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
The servant is one who performs the work that עֲבֹדָה names.
avodah: Work, service, or worship rendered through service.
עֲבֹדָה
This is the word used for the service the instruments are meant to support.
מִשְׁקָל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
To weigh, weigh out, or measure.
מִשְׁקָל (mishqal, weight) comes from the root שׁקל (sh-q-l, to weigh). The verse’s repeated weighing shows provision being measured in relation to the work it serves.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: To weigh or weigh out.
שָׁקַל
The verb makes the act behind “by weight” visible: the materials are apportioned through weighing.
sheqel: A unit of weight; a shekel.
שֶׁקֶל
This branch shows how weighing becomes a concrete measure for material provision.
THE PATTERN
Resources take their meaning as they are apportioned to the work each part is given to serve.
And they took from Moses all the lifted offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of serving the set-apart place, to make it withal. And they brought yet to him willing offerings morning by morning.from whom the whole body, joined together and knit by every joint that supplies, according to the working in the measure of each part, makes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.As each has received a gift, serve it to one another as good stewards of the many-colored favor of God.THE THREAD
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.The word translated “service” here is עֲבֹדָה (avodah, work or service), the same root-family that appears in 1 Chronicles 28:14. The connected verse shows that this service includes both a purpose and the tangible work and resources that make it possible.
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