What Does 1 Chronicles 16:29 Mean in the King James?
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
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 LORD’s name is his nature, and its weight becomes visible in a gift, an arrival, and a body bending low.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s name is his nature, and that nature carries weight in your life now. The gift, your coming before him, and your bowing belong to one movement: reverence takes shape in what you bring and in the posture of your body. The beauty here is the distinctness of what is set apart for this encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Reverence is only an inward feeling or a spoken title; here it takes material and bodily form in an offering, an approach, and a bow.
THE ROOT
כְּבוֹד
kevod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy; to carry weight.
The form kevod in this verse comes from כבד, whose basic sense is heaviness. The root holds glory and honoring together as weight: the LORD’s nature is not merely praised but recognized as carrying substance.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy; weighty.
כָּבֵד
The physical sense of weight is the seed behind kevod, so glory carries substance rather than mere praise.
kibbed: To honor; to treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This verb turns weight into regard: to honor is to assign importance or weight.
הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ
hishtachavu
GROWS FROM
שחה
sh-ch-h
To bow down; to prostrate oneself.
The Hebrew verb behind “worship” carries the bodily posture of bowing down. Reverence takes shape in the body: recognition of the LORD’s weight becomes visible as a person lowers themself.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: To bow down; to prostrate oneself.
שָׁחָה
This is the root verb beneath the verse’s form, making the physical posture central to its language of worship.
mishtachaveh: One who bows down; one who prostrates oneself.
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
This related form describes a person taking the bowed posture named by the verse.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To be set apart; to mark as distinct.
The phrase “beauty of holiness” includes qodesh, the set-apart. Splendor belongs here to a reality marked off for the LORD; the bowing takes place within that distinctness.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective names the quality of distinction carried by qodesh.
qiddesh: To set apart; to consecrate.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the same root as an act of marking something as distinct.
THE PATTERN
Recognition of the LORD’s worth becomes visible in bodily reverence and in what is brought before him.
And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,THE THREAD
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.The Hebrew word for “honour” here comes from כבד, the same root as “glory” in this verse. English gives glory and honor different words, while the root links both to weight: giving glory to the LORD’s name recognizes its weight, and honoring him treats that weight as real.
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