What Does 1 Chronicles 11:5 Mean?
And the settlers of Jebus said to David, "You shall not come in here." Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. It is the city of David.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David.THE KEY
The refusal is a claim of authority, and “nevertheless” reveals that saying “you cannot enter” does not itself secure a stronghold.
THE MEANING
A spoken boundary can sound final without settling who holds a place. The one who says “Thou shalt not come hither” does not thereby secure it; the verse keeps both exclusion and seizure in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A prohibition is not the same as secure control: “Thou shalt not come hither” is a claim, not proof that the stronghold cannot change hands.
THE ROOT
מְצוּדָה
metsûdâ
GROWS FROM
צוד
tsud
To hunt, pursue, or catch.
The English “castle” gives the structure; the Hebrew word also carries the language of hunting and capture. Here the word for the stronghold resonates with the following act of capturing it.
ALSO GROWS
matsod: A hunting net or trap.
מָצוֹד
This branch makes the root’s language of capture concrete beside the stronghold David takes.
tsayid: Game or prey; hunted food.
צַיִד
The hunted thing belongs to the same root family, adding pursuit to the word-picture of the fortress.
וַיִּלְכֹּד
wayyilkod from lakad
GROWS FROM
לכד
lakad
To capture, seize, or catch.
“Took” carries the sharper sense of capture. Alongside the stronghold’s hunting-related word family, it makes the verse’s change of control unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
nilkad: Caught or captured.
נִלְכַּד
This form describes the state of being caught, the other side of the taking named in the verse.
malkodet: A snare or trap.
מַלְכֹּדֶת
The branch shows capture as something that can be set to hold what enters it.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved or dear one.
David’s name carries the sense of beloved into the scene as he takes a stronghold that resists him. That name-nature sits beside the force of the taking without softening it.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved or dear one; also kinsman.
דּוֹד
This is the name’s root-family sense of one who is dear.
dōdîm: Love or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
This branch carries the root into the language of affection, keeping the name’s sense of belovedness audible.
THE PATTERN
A stronghold’s power is revealed by whether it bars passage, shelters a life, or is pulled down.
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell beneath itself, so that the people climbed up into the city, every man straight ahead of his face, and they seized the city.The nature of the LORD is a strong tower; the aligned one runs into it and is set on high.For the weapons of our campaign are not of the flesh, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.THE THREAD
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I shelter; my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, and my high place.The Hebrew word translated “fortress” here is מְצוּדָה (metsudah), the same word used for Zion’s “castle.” Here that stronghold is refuge rather than a contested defense, showing how the same word can name a place of shelter or one whose control is seized.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us