What Does 1 Chronicles 15:14 Mean in the King James?
So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The ark’s ascent begins before it moves: its carriers first become set apart.
THE MEANING
What you carry as sacred moves through the life that bears it; readiness belongs to the carrying itself. Set-apartness is the state of being made distinct for that charge, before the movement begins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the sacred object alone determines the encounter; the verse places the bearers’ set-apartness at the threshold of its movement.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְקַדְּשׁוּ
wayyitqaddəshu
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
Set apart, dedicate, make sacred.
“sanctified themselves” in this verse is wayyitqaddəshu. The verb describes the carriers setting themselves apart before they bear the ark. Its word-family names both the act of setting apart and the sacred place itself, joining the carriers’ readiness to what they carry.
ALSO GROWS
qādôsh: set apart; sacred
קָדוֹשׁ
This describes the quality expressed by the carriers’ act: they become distinct for the sacred task.
qōdesh: set-apartness; sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
The shared root joins their preparation to the ark’s sacred character.
miqdāsh: sanctuary; set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The same seed names a sacred place, connecting the set-apart bearers with the holy space they approach.
לְהַעֲלוֹת
lehaʿalot
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
Go up, ascend; in this form, cause to go up.
“bring up” in this verse is lehaʿalot. The verb is the causative form of “ascend”: the ark is made to rise. Its sibling עֹלָה (ʿōlāh), meaning “an offering that rises,” places the ark’s movement within a wider Hebrew vocabulary of ascent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: go up; ascend
עָלָה
This is the basic movement carried by the verb used for bringing the ark upward.
ʿōlāh: burnt offering; an offering that rises
עֹלָה
The shared root preserves the sense of rising, making the ark’s upward journey part of a broader language of ascent.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart becomes ready to carry what is sacred.
Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.THE THREAD
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?“His holy place” uses the Hebrew root קדשׁ (q-d-sh), meaning “set apart,” also found in “sanctified” here. The shared root joins the set-apart carriers with the set-apart space they approach.
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