What Does 1 Chronicles 16:40 Mean in the King James?
To offer burnt offerings unto the LORD upon the altar of the burnt offering continually morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the law of the LORD, which he commanded 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 Hebrew name for the burnt offering means “ascent,” so this verse frames the morning-and-evening sacrifice as something that rises within a life ordered by instruction.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the reader now of devotion as a repeated practice: the offering returns morning and evening, and the community’s actions remain shaped by what is written in the LORD’s instruction. The altar and the written teaching belong to one rhythm, joining embodied offering with ordered life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that worship is only spontaneous feeling dissolves here: devotion takes a recurring form and remains accountable to instruction.
THE ROOT
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, ascend.
“burnt offerings” in this verse is ʿolot. The offering is named by ascent, and the verb translated “to offer” comes from that same root, joining the act to what rises. The repeated morning-and-evening offering carries that ascent as a costly, recurring act; the text keeps the altar and its burning in view while revealing the upward motion in its name.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up, rise, ascend.
עָלָה
The verb behind “to offer up” shares this root with the offering’s name.
maʿalah: Ascent, upward step.
מַעֲלָה
This related form preserves the upward movement that the English phrase “burnt offering” does not foreground.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
To direct or teach; instruction.
“law” in this verse is torah. The Hebrew Torah carries the sense of instruction and direction. Here, written instruction shapes the same recurring worship, joining the rising offering to a way of practice.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To teach, direct, or point.
יָרָה
The root verb shows Torah as instruction that points a way.
moreh: Teacher, one who instructs.
מוֹרֶה
This related form makes the instructional sense audible in the phrase “written in the law.”
THE PATTERN
Devotion takes shape through repeated, appointed rhythms.
Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.THE THREAD
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.The same root, עלה (ʿalah, “to ascend”), names these burnt offerings and underlies the act of offering them. Genesis shows this ascent at an altar; Chronicles shows it returning morning and evening, turning the shared root into a recurring image of what rises.
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