What Does 1 Chronicles 21:10 Mean?
Go and tell David, saying, Thus says the LORD, I set before you three things. Choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.
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
Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “offer” pictures the three judgments stretched out before David, while “choose” leaves him responsible for which one is enacted.
THE MEANING
Three consequences are made plain, and you are given a choice about which one will be enacted. The verse holds agency inside a narrowing field: choosing remains real even when every offered path carries a cost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having options means having control over the terms or that choice cancels the cost.
THE ROOT
נֹטֶה
noteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
to stretch out, extend, or incline
“set before” in this verse is noteh. The Hebrew behind “offer” is נֹטֶה (noteh), from נָטָה (natah), to stretch or extend; the three outcomes are pictured as laid out before David. The same root can describe inclining or extending a line, so the verse frames the decision as a direction chosen within an already extended field.
ALSO GROWS
hatteh: incline or turn aside
הַטֵּה
The same extension can be directional: what is laid before David can also describe the direction a heart is turned toward.
matteh: staff; tribe
מַטֶּה
This branch carries the image of something extended into a line or stem; here, three outcomes are extended before David.
בְּחַר
beḥar
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
to choose or select
“Choose” is בְּחַר (beḥar), from בָּחַר (bachar): select one from what is presented. The verb does not make the offered outcomes disappear; it gives David agency over which one will be enacted.
ALSO GROWS
beḥir: chosen one
בְּחִיר
The choice can mark a person as selected; here, David selects which offered outcome will reach him.
mivḥar: choice; choicest selection
מִבְחָר
This noun keeps selection at the root of the word: David is choosing one from among the three presented.
THE PATTERN
Choice remains meaningful even when each available path carries a cost.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you settle. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and roomy is the way that leads to perishing, and many are those who go in through it.THE THREAD
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.The verb בְּחַר (beḥar), “choose,” grows from the same root בחר (bachar) as the choice in Deuteronomy. There, life and death are both set before the hearer, making visible how choosing selects among outcomes already named.
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