What Does 1 Chronicles 21:13 Mean?
And David said to Gad, I am in a very narrow place. Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for very great are his compassions, and let me not fall into the hand of man.
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 David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.THE KEY
David names distress as a narrow place, then chooses whose hand will hold him: compassion changes what it means to fall.
THE MEANING
When a great narrowness closes around you, this verse lets you name the pressure plainly. The hands before you are not interchangeable: human power can hold you, while the LORD’s hand is named by abundant compassion. Trust takes shape inside the pressure, before it has passed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that every hand holds with the same kind of power dissolves here: the character of the hand matters.
THE ROOT
צַר
tsar
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
To bind, press in, or make narrow.
“very narrow place” in this verse is tsar. The Hebrew calls distress a narrowing: “strait to me” is the experience of being pressed into a tight place. The word echoes the larger movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
tsarah: Distress, trouble
צָרָה
It shows that distress and narrowness belong to the same word family.
Mitzrayim: Egypt; associated in this reading with “the two narrows”
מִצְרַיִם
The shared narrowing sounds place this personal distress within scripture’s wider arc from constriction toward release.
רַחֲמָיו
rachamav
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
Compassion and tender care, with an image of the womb.
“compassions” in this verse is rachamav. “His mercies” is the language of compassion, not only a tally of kind acts. David’s choice rests on the nature of the one whose hand he enters: a hand marked by tender care.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
The womb image gives compassion a sense of sheltering, life-bearing tenderness.
rachum: Compassionate
רַחוּם
This describes the compassionate nature David trusts when he chooses the LORD’s hand.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved, yet the verse places him inside real constriction. Belovedness does not erase vulnerability; here, it stands beside a choice to entrust that vulnerability to compassion.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also a close kinsman
דּוֹד
The name’s root makes belovedness part of the voice speaking in this moment of distress.
dodim: Love, endearment
דּוֹדִים
This related word carries the root’s language of affection and belovedness.
THE PATTERN
In vulnerability, the character of the one holding power matters more than the mere fact of being held.
It is better to take shelter in the LORD than to lean your weight on humankind.As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those in awe of him.But we ourselves had the sentence of death within us, so that we would not lean our weight on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,The “mercies” David names and the LORD’s “merciful” self-description share the רחם root of compassion. David’s choice rests on a nature the LORD names: the hand he enters is marked by tender care.
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