Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Chronicles 15:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21And Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps on the Sheminith to excel.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Assigns harps on Sheminith to seven named musicians.
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 15:16–15:24
Assigns harps on Sheminith to seven named musicians. Read 1 Chronicles 15:21 within 15:16–15:24. The complete unit records: Levitical leaders appoint Heman, Asaph, Ethan, musicians, instructors, doorkeepers, and trumpet-playing priests for the procession.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The corrected ark movement is not merely procedural; it becomes carefully distributed skilled communal work. In this exact position, the line beginning “And Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps…” assigns harps on Sheminith to seven named musicians.
What Remains True
Assigns harps on Sheminith to seven named musicians. This concrete detail supports a bounded truth: Worship requires ordered, truthful, skilled, and accountable service, while sacred office, beauty, or scale never determines a person's worth.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because this verse assigns harps on Sheminith to seven named musicians, keep it inside 15:16–15:24, compare its Samuel-Kings relationship honestly, protect affected people from coercion or stigma, and apply only the accountable principle the complete unit supports.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 15:16–15:24 — Skilled singers, players, and gatekeepers receive named rolesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 15:16–15:24, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:16–15:24
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 15:16–15:24, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗