What Does 1 Chronicles 22:12 Mean?
Only may the LORD give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the instruction of the LORD your God.
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
Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.THE KEY
The LORD gives discernment to guard instruction entrusted within a responsibility for others.
THE MEANING
The LORD gives you wisdom and understanding within the responsibilities that touch other people. The instruction is something to watch over, and discernment helps you see how to carry that charge faithfully.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that wisdom is mainly private insight: here, its gift carries responsibility for others and for the instruction entrusted to you.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹר
lishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
to watch, guard, or keep
“keep” in this verse is lishmor. The verb carries the image of watching over and guarding. Paired with Torah as instruction, it presents wisdom as discernment that protects what has been entrusted within a responsibility for others.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: keeper, guardian, or watchman
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper’s role makes the verse’s charge concrete: wisdom watches over what has been entrusted.
mishmeret: guard duty or charge
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch links keeping with an assigned responsibility, echoing the charge concerning Israel.
תּוֹרַת
torat
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
to direct, teach, or point out
The word carries the sense of instruction that directs a way. What is guarded here is teaching that gives direction within the charge entrusted to you.
ALSO GROWS
torah: instruction
תּוֹרָה
This is the word in the verse: the LORD’s instruction is what wisdom is given to keep.
moreh: teacher or instructor
מוֹרֶה
The teacher and the instruction share a root of directing, bringing out the sense of guidance contained in what is kept.
בִּינָה
binah
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
to discern or understand
Binah is discernment: the capacity to distinguish and perceive how things stand in relation to one another. Here, understanding is suited to the work of guarding instruction amid responsibility for a people.
ALSO GROWS
bein: between or among
בֵּין
This related form evokes the distinctions discernment perceives, helping show that understanding is more than simply possessing information.
tevunah: discernment or understanding
תְּבוּנָה
This branch carries the same discerning quality that equips someone to keep instruction wisely.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom is given as discernment for keeping instruction and carrying responsibility.
Guard them therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.THE THREAD
Guard them therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.The same roots return: שמר (shamar) frames the instruction as something guarded, and בינה (binah) names discernment. Deuteronomy shows that keeping and doing the instruction is itself wisdom and understanding made visible.
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