What Does 1 Chronicles 29:14 Mean in the King James?

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

1 Chronicles 29:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Even the willingness to give is received; what leaves your hand first comes from God’s hand.

THE MEANING

Your resources and your capacity to offer them freely both come from God. Giving is a real human act, yet the gift returns to the source from whom it was received.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse dissolves the belief that generosity makes you the original source or sole owner of what you give.

THE ROOT

לְהִתְנַדֵּב

lehitnadev

GROWS FROM

נדב

To volunteer or offer freely.

“offer willingly” in this verse is lehitnadev. English separates a willing mood from an offering, while this Hebrew word-family links them. The root ⁨נדב⁩ (n-d-b; nadav) appears in the act of volunteering, in ⁨נְדָבָה⁩ (nedavah), a freewill offering, and in ⁨נָדִיב⁩ (nadiv), meaning willing or noble: the offering and the willingness share a seed.

ALSO GROWS

nedavah: Freewill offering

נְדָבָה

The same root names both the voluntary act and the gift made freely.

nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble

נָדִיב

This branch connects freely giving with the quality of a willing and generous person.

נָתַנּוּ

natannu

GROWS FROM

נתן

To give, put, or set.

The verse places the giving in two directions: what is given comes “from your hand” and is given “to you.” The root ⁨נתן⁩ (n-t-n; natan) also forms ⁨מַתָּנָה⁩ (mattanah), “gift,” making the return of the gift visible in the word-family itself.

ALSO GROWS

natan: To give, put, or set

נָתַן

Its range holds giving and placing together, echoing the verse’s image of what comes from God’s hand.

mattanah: Gift

מַתָּנָה

The noun for a gift grows from the same root as “we have given,” linking the act to what is received.

THE PATTERN

What people give is first received; generosity reveals the prior source rather than creating one.

A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1 · KJVThe verse places everything people might give within what already belongs to the LORD.

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Acts 17:25 · KJVThe verse describes God as the giver of what human hands could never supply to him.

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

1 Corinthians 4:7 · KJVThe verse traces what a person possesses back to what they first received.

THE THREAD

And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Genesis 28:22 · KJV

Genesis 28:22 uses the same root ⁨נתן⁩ (n-t-n; natan) for “give” when Jacob says, “of all that thou shalt give me.” The echo makes this verse’s movement clear: what is offered to God is first received from God.

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