What Does 1 Chronicles 22:18 Mean?
Is not the LORD your God with you? And has he not given you rest on every side? For he has given into my hand those who settle in the land, and the land is brought low before the LORD and before his people.
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
Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people.THE KEY
The verse’s “rest on every side” is a settled condition joined to the LORD’s presence and the land’s forceful subjugation.
THE MEANING
The LORD is with you now, and the verse describes rest as a condition settled around you on every side. It also names what that settlement contains: inhabitants handed into a hand and the land brought under subjection before the LORD and his people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that rest here is only inward calm: the verse ties it to the concrete subjection of inhabitants and land.
THE ROOT
וְהֵנִיחַ
ve-hēnîaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
To settle or come to rest; in this verb form, to bring someone to rest or give rest.
The verb presents rest as something the LORD brings about, not merely an inner mood. Its root also carries the sense of settling, so “on every side” describes a settled condition as well as repose.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥ: Rested, came to rest
נָח
The same root describes coming to rest, illuminating the settled condition named in this verse.
menûḥāh: Rest, resting place
מְנוּחָה
This branch makes rest a place or condition of settling, which fits the verse’s “on every side.”
וְנִכְבְּשָׁה
ve-nikhbešāh
GROWS FROM
כבש
To subdue or bring under forceful control.
“brought low” in this verse is ve-nikhbešāh. The root names subjugation, not simply becoming quiet. Here, rest is described alongside inhabitants being handed over and the land brought under control; the force in that wording remains visible.
ALSO GROWS
kāvaš: To subdue, bring under control
כָּבַשׁ
This is the verb behind “subdued,” showing the force carried by the verse’s description.
kibbûš: Subjugation, conquest
כִּבּוּשׁ
This related noun keeps the verse’s conquest in view rather than reducing “subdued” to calm.
נָתַן
nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The same root can describe both giving and placing. In this verse, the inhabitants are given “into mine hand,” making the transfer of power part of how the text describes the land’s settled condition.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: Gift, present
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows giving as something placed into a recipient’s possession.
nittan: Was given, was placed
נִתַּן
This passive form keeps attention on what is transferred and where it is placed, as in “into mine hand.”
THE PATTERN
Rest appears as a provision God gives, establishing relief or a settled place for the one who receives it.
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
And the LORD caused them to rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers; and there stood not a man of all their enemies before their faces; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand.Joshua’s wording pairs rest “round about” with enemies delivered into the hand, as this verse does. Both use forms of נוח (nûaḥ, “rest, settle”), joining a settled condition with the explicit defeat of opposition.
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