What Does 1 Chronicles 21:25 Mean in the King James?
So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
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
In Hebrew, “shekels” and “weight” echo the same root, so the price is named both as money and as gold measured by its weight.
THE MEANING
The verse meets the reader with devotion in material form: a place is secured with gold measured by its actual weight, not by a vague promise. What is set apart has both a location and a visible cost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the idea that devotion is only inward or symbolic; here the place is made real through a costly, weighed exchange.
THE ROOT
שִׁקְלֵי
shiqlei
GROWS FROM
שקל
to weigh or measure by weight
“shekels … by weight” in this verse is shiqlei. “Shekels of gold” and “by weight” come from the same Hebrew root, שקל. English can make the weight sound like an added clarification; the Hebrew ties the unit of payment and the act of weighing together.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: to weigh
שָׁקַל
This is the action beneath the price: the gold is measured, not left indefinite.
sheqel: shekel, a unit of weight and money
שֶׁקֶל
The payment’s unit already carries the idea of measured weight.
mishqal: weight or measure
מִשְׁקָל
This is the word rendered “by weight,” echoing the same root as “shekels.”
מָקוֹם
maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
to rise or stand
The Hebrew word for “place” grows from the root for standing or rising: a place is, in this word’s shape, a standing-place. The next verse shows what stands there, a built altar, so the word points toward ground made ready for what follows.
ALSO GROWS
qum: to rise or stand
קוּם
This basic verb gives “place” its sense of where something can stand.
heqim: to raise or establish
הֵקִים
The related verb carries the sense of making something stand, illuminating how a purchased site can become an established place of encounter.
maqom: place or standing-place
מָקוֹם
This is the verse’s word for the ground secured by the exchange.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
beloved, beloved one
David’s name is connected to dod, “beloved.” The verse places that relational name alongside the exact weight of the gold: the act is personal as well as materially precise.
ALSO GROWS
dod: beloved one; also kinsman
דּוֹד
This related word carries the belovedness associated with David’s name.
dodi: my beloved
דּוֹדִי
The same word-family gives a direct form of personal address, keeping the name’s relational meaning in view.
THE PATTERN
Giving carries purpose into material form, whether through weighed payment, willing offerings, or deliberate generosity.
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.The next verse shows what this purchased place becomes: the site of an altar and an answer from heaven. The weighed gold is part of a movement from concrete exchange to encounter.
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