What Does 2 Chronicles 1:6 Mean?
And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the LORD, which was at the tent of meeting, and sent up a thousand rising offerings upon it.
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 Solomon went up thither to the brasen altar before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for Solomon’s going up, his offering, and the burnt offering itself: the whole scene is one ascent.
THE MEANING
The verse places you inside an image of approach: Solomon goes up, and a thousand offerings go up before the LORD. The altar stands at the tent of meeting, so the ascent happens within an encounter. The scale is immense, but its center is what is brought before the LORD.
THE ROOT
עָלָה
ʿālāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend; in a causative form, to make something go up.
English divides this into “went up,” “offered,” and “burnt offerings,” while Hebrew repeats the root עלה across all three: Solomon goes up, makes the offerings go up, and the offering itself is an ʿolah, named with the same root of ascent. The verse binds the person, the act, and the offering into one upward movement.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
The verb describes Solomon’s movement to the altar and then his making the offerings ascend.
ʿōlāh: A burnt offering, named from the root of ascending.
עֹלָה
The offering carries the same upward motion as Solomon’s journey.
maʿālāh: An ascent, step, or degree.
מַעֲלָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of upward movement visible beyond the act of offering.
מוֹעֵד
moʿēd
GROWS FROM
יעד
To appoint or designate; מוֹעֵד refers to an appointed time or meeting place.
The Hebrew phrase is אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, the “tent of meeting.” Its root carries the sense of a set appointment, locating the ascent at a place of encounter with the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
yāʿad: To appoint or designate.
יָעַד
It gives the meeting place its sense of an encounter set apart for meeting.
moʿēd: An appointed time or meeting place.
מוֹעֵד
It shows that the altar stands within a place defined by meeting, not only by sacrifice.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures an offering as something that comes before God in ascent, through altar smoke, fragrant sacrifice, or self-giving.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.And walk in love, as the Anointed One also loved us and handed himself over for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, a fragrance that settles sweetly.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.The same Hebrew ascent-root binds Noah’s altar to Solomon’s: in both verses the text uses the root of “go up” for offering burnt offerings. That repeated word-shape makes ascent part of the offering itself.
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