What Does 1 Chronicles 17:3 Mean?
And it came to pass that same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
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 it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,THE KEY
Even the name Nathan (“he gave”) sits inside a scene where he first receives: the word’s source is God.
THE MEANING
The word of God reaches you as something received, not self-generated; night does not keep it from arriving. The verse keeps the source distinct from the messenger: the word is God’s, and Nathan is the one it comes to. His name, “he gave,” leaves the quiet order visible: receiving comes before giving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the word you carry must originate in you: Nathan receives what belongs to God.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; a spoken word or matter.
Davar can mean both a word and a matter or thing. The verse presents God’s speaking as something that arrives as a reality for Nathan to receive before he passes it on.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes clear that the word Nathan receives is speech from a source, not his own invention.
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves the root’s range: what is spoken can also be a matter placed before someone.
נָתָן
Nathan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
Nathan’s name comes from natan, “he gave.” Here he first receives the word; his name quietly places receiving before giving.
ALSO GROWS
natan: He gave.
נָתַן
This verb is the root behind Nathan’s name, making the contrast between his name and his role as receiver visible.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This branch shows the root’s giving as something received, echoing the word that comes to Nathan.
וַיְהִי
vayhi
GROWS FROM
היה
h-y-h
To be, become, or happen.
The Hebrew uses the same verb form twice in this verse: first for what happens that night, then for the word of God being to Nathan. The KJV’s “came to pass” and “came” bring out the sense of an event taking place and a word arriving.
ALSO GROWS
hayah: To be, become, or happen.
הָיָה
This is the basic verb whose range includes both being and an event occurring.
vayhi: And it was; and it happened.
וַיְהִי
Its repetition links the night’s unfolding with the word’s presence to Nathan.
THE PATTERN
A word is received by the person who will carry it onward.
And it came to pass that night, and the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.THE THREAD
And it came to pass that night, and the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,This is the near-verbatim parallel: the same night, the same Nathan, and the same word arriving. The Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”) comes from דבר (d-b-r, “speak”), holding the spoken message and the matter placed before him together.
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