What Does 1 Chronicles 21:1 Mean?
The Adversary stood up against Israel, and stirred David to count Israel.
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 Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.THE KEY
The adversary reaches Israel by moving David (דָּוִד, Dāwîḏ, “beloved”) to turn the people into a count.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now: opposition can reach you through an impulse that looks like ordinary administration. It holds influence and agency together: an adversary incites David, whose name means beloved, yet David still acts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a decision is harmless simply because it looks practical; an adversarial impulse can move through the practical.
THE ROOT
וַיָּסֶת
wayyāset
GROWS FROM
סות
sût
To incite, entice, or persuade someone toward an action.
“stirred” in this verse is wayyāset. The verb depicts one person moving another toward action, rather than striking Israel directly. The adversary supplies the pressure, while the decision remains David’s.
ALSO GROWS
hēsît: He incited or enticed.
הֵסִית
This form shows the root at work as one person inducing another to act.
massît: One who persuades or incites.
מַסִּית
The root can name the agent who produces the inducement as well as the act itself.
לִמְנוֹת
limnōt
GROWS FROM
מנה
mānāh
To count, appoint, or assign.
“count” in this verse is limnōt. The verb behind “number” also carries the sense of assigning. Its noun branch מְנָה (mĕnāh, portion or allotment) lets counting echo the power to set out shares; the census can carry more weight than arithmetic alone.
ALSO GROWS
mānāh: To count or appoint.
מָנָה
This is the action David is moved to take: to count Israel.
mĕnāh: A portion or allotted share.
מְנָה
This branch reveals the root’s link between counting and assigning a measure.
שָׂטָן
śāṭān
GROWS FROM
שׂטן
śṭn
To oppose or act as an adversary.
“the Adversary” in this verse is śāṭān. Without the Hebrew article, שָׂטָן (śāṭān, an adversary) reads as a role of opposition. The verse shows that opposition operating through David’s incitement and decision.
ALSO GROWS
śāṭān: An adversary or opponent.
שָׂטָן
The noun names the opposing role that stands against Israel.
leśiṭnô: To oppose or accuse him.
לְשִׂטְנוֹ
This verbal form in Zechariah 3:1 shows the same root as an action against someone.
THE PATTERN
A count can express either a ruler’s claim over people or attentive care for each life.
When you lift up the head of the children of Israel according to their counting, each man shall give a ransom for his living soul to the LORD when you count them, so that no striking falls among them when you count them.And David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. And David said to the LORD, "I have missed the mark greatly in what I have done. And now, I beg you, O LORD, carry away the crookedness of your servant, for I have done very foolishly."But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not shrink, for you surpass many sparrows.THE THREAD
And I will set your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your seed also shall be counted.Both verses use מָנָה (mānāh, to count or assign). In Genesis, the inability to count marks a promise beyond human measure; here, counting is an act David is moved to initiate, revealing how the same act can place a people under a ruler’s measure.
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