What Does 1 Chronicles 11:19 Mean in the King James?
And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.
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
David recognizes the water as carrying the living selves risked to bring it.
THE MEANING
Something you receive can carry the danger bound up in its arrival. David sees the water through the endangered living selves who brought it, so drinking it would make their risk feel consumable; he refuses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a gift is only an object, detached from whatever another person risked to bring it.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
The living self or person; נֶפֶשׁ names the living individual.
English “lives” can sound like an abstract measure of survival; nephesh keeps the living people in view. David sees the water as inseparable from the people who placed their living selves in danger to bring it.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul, person, self.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word used for the men’s lives at risk; it makes their peril personal rather than abstract.
naphash: To be refreshed or recover.
נָפַשׁ
The related verb is used for being refreshed in Exodus 23:12, connecting the living person with restoration and sharpening the cost of putting a life at risk.
THE PATTERN
A life placed at risk changes what receiving the resulting gift means.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.THE THREAD
For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?The Hebrew word for “life” here is nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ), the same word used for the men’s lives in 1 Chronicles 11:19. David has himself been described as putting his nephesh at risk; now he recognizes that same exposed life in the men who bring him water.
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