What Does 1 Chronicles 15:13 Mean?
For because you did not do it at the first, the LORD our God burst out upon us, for we sought him not according to the order laid down.
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
For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “breach” also means “break forth” and “spread”, the verse presents failed order as a rupture, not a minor omission.
THE MEANING
This verse holds seeking God together with the order by which that seeking is carried out. When you treat the appointed way as incidental, the text names the result a breach among the seekers. It makes the gap between desire and ordered approach visible now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sincere aim makes the way of approaching God irrelevant. Here, seeking and its appointed order belong together.
THE ROOT
פָּרַץ
parats
GROWS FROM
פרץ
To break through, burst out, or spread.
“burst out upon us” in this verse is parats. The word translated “breach” belongs to the same root as breaking forth and spreading outward. English can make the rupture sound like an isolated event; the Hebrew carries the force of something breaking through its bounds.
ALSO GROWS
perets: A breach or breaking through.
פֶּרֶץ
This noun names the rupture with the same root carried by the verse’s verb.
u-faratzta: To spread outward or break forth.
וּפָרַצְתָּ
This branch shows that the root can describe outward expansion as well as a breach.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or render a ruling.
“the order laid down” in this verse is mishpat. The “order” here is mishpat: a defined judgment or ruling. The phrase presents seeking God as something carried out according to a given way, not simply as a desire for an outcome.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: One who judges or renders a decision.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows the judgment-bearing sense within the word translated “order.”
mishpat: A judgment, ruling, or established ordinance.
מִשְׁפָּט
This is the word in the phrase “after the due order,” linking the approach to a defined ruling.
דָּרַשׁ
darash
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or investigate.
“sought him not” in this verse is darash. The root carries the active sense of seeking and inquiring, not merely wishing. Paired with mishpat, it makes the way of seeking part of the verse’s meaning.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: Interpretation or exposition arising from inquiry.
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch preserves the root’s connection to active seeking and examination.
darash: To seek, inquire, or ask after.
דָּרַשׁ
It shows that the seeking named in the verse has the quality of active inquiry.
THE PATTERN
Approaching what is set apart has a given order, and that order matters.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.Let all things become well shaped, and in rank.THE THREAD
And David burned, because the LORD had broken through upon Uzzah, and he called that place Perez-uzzah, the breach of Uzzah, to this day.The same root appears as “breach” and in the name “Perez-uzzah,” making the rupture itself the text’s named signal. This verse connects that breach to seeking without the due order, opening the root’s force beyond a simple interruption.
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