What Does 1 Chronicles 13:12 Mean?
And David was in awe of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God to me?
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 David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?THE KEY
David’s “to me” meets the truth that the ark is God’s: wanting nearness does not make the holy something he can claim or control.
THE MEANING
When you want to bring what is sacred close, this verse gives voice to the fear that can rise when its power feels dangerous. The ark is named as God’s, while the question turns on bringing it “to me”; longing and dread occupy the same sentence. The verse leaves that question open rather than offering a quick answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wanting to be near God does not mean you control what that nearness entails or that it will feel safe.
THE ROOT
יָרֵא
yare
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“in awe” in this verse is yare. This root holds fear and awe together, but the verse does not make David’s fear abstract: it follows a moment of real danger. The same word can mark reverence before God and alarm at what that encounter means.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
Its range keeps reverence and dread within the same Hebrew word.
nora’: Fearsome or awe-inspiring.
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what evokes both wonder and fear.
אָבִיא
avi
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come, enter, or arrive; in a causative form, to bring someone or something in.
The verb David uses to ask how he can bring the ark to himself grows from the word for coming or entering. English makes “bring” sound like a simple act of transport; the Hebrew also lets the question carry the idea of the ark entering into his nearness.
ALSO GROWS
bo: Come, enter, or arrive.
בּוֹא
This is the basic movement beneath David’s question about bringing the ark to himself.
mavo: Entrance or entry.
מָבוֹא
This related form makes the threshold implicit in the question visible: how does the ark enter into nearness with David?
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; also kinsman in related usage.
David’s name carries the sense of belovedness, yet the verse places that name beside fear. Being beloved does not erase the danger he feels in this encounter.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved or kinsman.
דּוֹד
This word carries the belovedness associated with David’s name.
dodi: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
This possessive form keeps the root’s language of belovedness close to the verse’s contrast between intimacy and fear.
THE PATTERN
An encounter with divine holiness can turn the wish for nearness into fear of standing before it.
And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this set-apart LORD God? And to whom shall he go up from us?And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that his awe may be upon your faces, and that you do not miss the mark.And great fear came upon the whole assembly, and upon all who heard these things.THE THREAD
And David was in awe of the LORD that day, and said, "How shall the ark of the LORD come to me?"Both accounts use the same Hebrew root ירא (yare, fear or awe), keeping David’s fear at the center of the scene. Chronicles frames the question as David bringing the ark to himself; Samuel frames it as the ark coming to him, holding human handling and the ark’s arrival together.
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