What Does 1 Chronicles 20:6 Mean?
And there was yet war at Gath, where there was a man of great measure, whose fingers and toes numbered twenty-four, six on each hand and six on each foot, and he too was born to the Rapha.
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 yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son of the giant.THE KEY
The verse makes giant lineage bodily and countable: twenty-four digits, six on each hand and foot.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the extraordinary in exact detail: twenty-four digits, six on each hand and foot. The body does not vanish into a label; its particular form and its lineage remain visible together.
THE ROOT
מִדָּה
middah
GROWS FROM
מָדַד
m-d-d
To measure.
“great measure” in this verse is middah. The Hebrew phrase is literally a “man of measure,” giving stature the sense of bodily dimension. The verse then makes that measure concrete by counting his fingers and toes.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure.
מָדַד
This verb is the seed behind the phrase “man of measure.”
middot: Measures or dimensions.
מִדּוֹת
The plural keeps stature connected to measurable dimensions, which the verse specifies through the body’s digits.
מִסְפָּר
mispar
GROWS FROM
סָפַר
s-f-r
To count, recount, or record.
The verse does not leave the unusual body as an impression: it gives a number. This root also reaches into recounting and written record, making the detail something stated and preserved.
ALSO GROWS
safar: To count or recount.
סָפַר
The verb names the act behind giving the digits as a number.
sefer: A book, scroll, or written document.
סֵפֶר
The same root connects counting with a recorded account; the body’s unusual detail is preserved in the telling.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes bodies legible through concrete measures and counts.
And again there was a battle in Gath, where there was a man of great measure, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot, four and twenty in number, and he also was born to the giant.And there went out a man of the between from the camp of the Philistines, Goliath by name, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.But even the hairs of your head are all counted.THE THREAD
And again there was a battle in Gath, where there was a man of great measure, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot, four and twenty in number, and he also was born to the giant.The companion verse uses the same “man of measure” language and repeats the count of six digits on each hand and foot. Read together, the verses make stature more than an impression: they render the body through measure and number.
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