What Does 1 Chronicles 29:14 Mean?
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.
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
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.THE KEY
Even the willingness to give is received; what leaves your hand first comes from God’s hand.
THE MEANING
Your resources and your capacity to offer them freely both come from God. Giving is a real human act, yet the gift returns to the source from whom it was received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that generosity makes you the original source or sole owner of what you give.
THE ROOT
לְהִתְנַדֵּב
lehitnadev
GROWS FROM
נדב
To volunteer or offer freely.
“offer willingly” in this verse is lehitnadev. English separates a willing mood from an offering, while this Hebrew word-family links them. The root נדב (n-d-b; nadav) appears in the act of volunteering, in נְדָבָה (nedavah), a freewill offering, and in נָדִיב (nadiv), meaning willing or noble: the offering and the willingness share a seed.
ALSO GROWS
nedavah: Freewill offering
נְדָבָה
The same root names both the voluntary act and the gift made freely.
nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble
נָדִיב
This branch connects freely giving with the quality of a willing and generous person.
נָתַנּוּ
natannu
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, put, or set.
The verse places the giving in two directions: what is given comes “from your hand” and is given “to you.” The root נתן (n-t-n; natan) also forms מַתָּנָה (mattanah), “gift,” making the return of the gift visible in the word-family itself.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, put, or set
נָתַן
Its range holds giving and placing together, echoing the verse’s image of what comes from God’s hand.
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
The noun for a gift grows from the same root as “we have given,” linking the act to what is received.
THE PATTERN
What people give is first received; generosity reveals the prior source rather than creating one.
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.For who sifts you apart? And what do you hold that you did not take? But if you did take it, why do you boast as though you had not taken it?THE THREAD
And this standing stone, which I have set up, shall be God's house; and of all you give me, I will surely give you the tenth.Genesis 28:22 uses the same root נתן (n-t-n; natan) for “give” when Jacob says, “of all that thou shalt give me.” The echo makes this verse’s movement clear: what is offered to God is first received from God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us