What Does 1 Chronicles 11:17 Mean in the King James?
And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, that is at the gate!
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
At Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” David longs for water from one particular well: desire knows the difference between abundance and the thing that answers its thirst.
THE MEANING
Your longing often has this same precision: not water in general, but the drink tied to a particular well and place. The verse holds need as bodily and relational: the one who longs can name the source, yet still must receive the water from another.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁקֵנִי
yashqeni
GROWS FROM
שקה
š-q-h
To give drink, water, or cause someone to drink.
“give me drink” in this verse is yashqeni. The verb does not simply say David drinks; he asks who will give him drink. Its family includes the one who waters and the cupbearer, so Hebrew keeps provision relational: thirst is met by someone else’s act.
ALSO GROWS
hishqah: Watered; caused to drink.
הִשְׁקָה
This is the same root used when Jacob waters Laban’s flock, showing the verb’s movement from one person’s thirst to another’s act of provision.
mashqeh: A drink; a cupbearer or one who serves drink.
מַשְׁקֶה
The root names both the drink and the person who serves it, keeping the giver present inside the language of receiving.
וַיִּתְאָו
vayit'av
GROWS FROM
אוה
ʾ-w-h
To desire, yearn, or crave.
This root can name craving as well as yearning, so “longed” carries more than a passing thought: it is wanting with appetite in it. David’s desire is precise and embodied, he wants water from a particular well.
ALSO GROWS
ta'avah: Desire, appetite, or craving.
תַּאֲוָה
This noun makes the bodily edge of David’s longing audible: what he wants is not abstract but something his thirst can receive.
ivvitikha: I longed for you.
אִוִּיתִיךָ
Isaiah uses this same root for longing directed toward God, showing how the word can carry desire from physical need into deep personal yearning.
THE PATTERN
Thirst makes provision relational: water reaches the thirsty through the hands that carry it.
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.Jacob’s “watered” comes from the same שקה root as David’s request to be given drink. In one verse the thirsty one receives; in the other someone becomes the one who makes others drink, showing two sides of the same root.
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