What Does 1 Chronicles 21:8 Mean?
And David said to God, I have missed the mark greatly, for I have done this thing. Now, please, release the crookedness of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
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 God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.THE KEY
David asks God to make his guilt pass away: confession moves from naming the miss to asking for release.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader where an action is admitted plainly: “I have sinned greatly.” David’s name, דָּוִד (Dāwîd, “beloved”), carries belovedness into that confession; the beloved names a real failure and asks for its crookedness to be taken away. The plea holds responsibility and release together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being beloved requires hiding failure: belovedness and direct confession stand together in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
חָטָאתִי
ḥāṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
to miss, err, or fail
“I have missed the mark” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾtî. English “sinned” can sound like a settled moral category. The Hebrew verb חָטָאתִי names a miss or failure, and its first-person form makes the confession direct: I missed, I failed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, err, or sin
חָטָא
This verb shares the root and makes the confession an admission of an act, not a label imposed from outside.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: sin; also a sin offering
חַטָּאת
The same root can name both the failure and an offering associated with it, keeping the miss connected to what addresses it.
ḥōṭēʾ: one who sins or misses
חוֹטֵא
The root can describe a person as well as an act, while David’s wording centers the act he himself has done.
הַעֲבֵר
haʿăvēr
GROWS FROM
עבר
to pass over, cross, or go beyond
The Hebrew plea asks God to make the iniquity pass away. The root turns “do away” into movement: guilt is named as something that can be carried out of the way.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass over or cross
עָבַר
This is the verb at the root of David’s request: he asks for the guilt to pass.
ʿēver: the other side, beyond, or across
עֵבֶר
This related form carries the sense of crossing to what lies beyond, echoing the movement in the plea.
נִסְכַּלְתִּי
niskáltî
GROWS FROM
סכל
to act foolishly or without sound judgment
“foolishly” in this verse is niskáltî. The verse closes with a second kind of naming: alongside the miss, David recognizes the folly in his action. The confession holds both the deed and the poor judgment that shaped it.
ALSO GROWS
sākāl: foolish, lacking sound judgment
סָכָל
The adjective shares the root and names the quality David recognizes in his act.
siklût: folly or foolishness
סִכְלוּת
This noun makes the folly itself visible as part of what David is confessing.
THE PATTERN
When the miss is brought into the open, the next movement is release and cleansing.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.Tread me thoroughly clean of my crookedness, and cleanse me of my falling short.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.Both verses use עָוֹן (ʿāwōn, “crookedness” or “guilt”): here David asks for it to pass away, and there he names it openly and receives forgiveness. The shared word connects the request for release with the moment guilt is no longer hidden.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us