What Does 1 Chronicles 28:16 Mean?
And by weight he gave gold for the tables of the bread of the face, for every table; and likewise silver for the tables of silver.
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 by weight he gave gold for the tables of shewbread, for every table; and likewise silver for the tables of silver:THE KEY
The gold and silver are weighed into tables: measured wealth becomes a place where bread can be received.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of provision with literal weight: gold and silver are apportioned to tables that hold bread. The table is where what sustains you is extended and received. Sacred meaning includes tangible material provision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that provision must be immaterial to be sacred dissolves here: weighed gold and silver serve the tables that hold bread.
THE ROOT
שֻׁלְחָנוֹת
shulḥanot
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or extend.
“tables” in this verse is shulḥanot. The table’s name carries the sense of provision sent outward and spread where it can be received. Here, gold and silver are directed toward a place where bread is extended.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send forth, release, or let go.
שָׁלַח
The root gives the table a sense of provision being sent outward for reception.
shulḥan: Table.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table is the place where provision is spread and made available.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name links what is sent forth with restoring waters, another image of provision reaching what needs it.
מִשְׁקָל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
To weigh or measure.
The verse makes the material provision precise: the gold and silver have weight and are assigned to a purpose. What sustains the table is not an abstraction; it is measured and made tangible.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: To weigh or balance.
שָׁקַל
The verb names the act behind the verse’s measured allocation.
sheqel: A unit of weight, later also a unit of money.
שֶׁקֶל
The related measure shows how weight can mark material value.
THE PATTERN
Provision takes a tangible form, receives a place, and becomes available at the table.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.For a tent is built, the first one, in which are the lampstand, the table, and the loaves laid out, which is called the set-apart place.So that you may eat and drink at my table in my governance, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.THE THREAD
And you set upon the table the bread of the face before me always.Exodus gives the table its purpose: bread is set there continually. That opens the weight in this verse further, the material value is directed toward a place where provision can be extended.
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