What Does 1 Chronicles 13:8 Mean in the King James?
And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
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
The Hebrew verb translated “played” also carries the sense of rejoicing, so this is strength turned into delight made audible before God.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you as a picture of shared praise: the whole community brings its strength into sound before God. The verb for playing also carries laughter and rejoicing, making the music delight made audible, not only formal performance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that reverence must be quiet and restrained: here, voices, instruments, and strength all belong in what happens before God.
THE ROOT
מְשַׂחֲקִים
mesachaqim
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
To play, laugh, or rejoice.
English “played” can sound like performance alone, but שׂחק (śaḥaq, play or rejoice) also carries laughter and delight. The root lets the music of this verse hold both force and joy at once.
ALSO GROWS
mischak: Play or game.
מִשְׂחָק
It shows that the verb belongs to the language of play, not only formal music-making.
sechoq: Laughter or merriment.
שְׂחוֹק
It opens the verse’s sound toward delight and rejoicing.
עֹז
oz
GROWS FROM
עזז
To be strong or prevail; עֹז names strength or might.
The strength here is not separated from the song: the people bring their full עֹז (ʿoz, strength) into the shared sound. Beside the playful verb, might becomes part of rejoicing rather than a force held apart from it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazzuz: Mighty or strong.
עָזוּז
It carries the same sense of strength that עֹז brings into the music.
maʿoz: Stronghold or refuge.
מָעוֹז
It shows strength as something that can also be a place of shelter, widening the word beyond sheer force.
THE PATTERN
Praise takes shape as shared, embodied sound, with voices and instruments carrying delight before God.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;THE THREAD
Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;The same root שׂחק (śaḥaq, play or rejoice) appears in “rejoicing always before him.” Proverbs gives the shared root to Wisdom’s delight, opening this verse’s communal music as joy expressed in God’s presence.
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