What Does 1 Chronicles 4:39 Mean?
And they went to the entrance of Gedor, even to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.
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 they went to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.THE KEY
“Pasture” grows from the same Hebrew root as “feed” and “shepherd,” joining the sought-for place to the care that sustains the flock.
THE MEANING
Your movement toward what sustains you has purpose even while the pasture is still being sought. The verse names need plainly, while keeping the search oriented toward nourishment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that still searching means being directionless: this search has a destination, pasture for the flock.
THE ROOT
מִרְעֶה
mir'eh
GROWS FROM
רעה
To feed, tend, or shepherd.
The pasture sought here is more than a location: its word grows from the same root as feeding and shepherding. Hebrew holds the place of nourishment together with the act of tending that makes nourishment possible.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: To feed, tend, or shepherd.
רָעָה
The flock’s search for pasture is tied to the action of feeding and care.
ro'eh: Shepherd; one who tends a flock.
רֹעֶה
The same root names both the flock’s sustenance and the one who tends it.
THE PATTERN
The search for sustenance is purposeful movement toward a place where life can feed.
He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.I will feed them in a good pasture, and on the high mountains of Israel will be their fold. There they will lie down in a good fold, and in a fat pasture they will feed on the mountains of Israel.I am the door. Through me, if anyone enters, he shall be delivered, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I do not come up short.The Hebrew word for “shepherd” (רֹעֶה, ro’eh) shares the root רעה with “pasture” (מִרְעֶה, mir’eh) here. The search for food and the one who tends the flock belong to one word-family: feeding and care are joined at the root.
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