What Does 1 Chronicles 13:9 Mean in the King James?
And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
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 oxen’s “stumble” comes from a Hebrew root of release, while Uzza’s hand is sent out to hold, the verse puts letting go and grasping in one instant.
THE MEANING
The oxen lose their footing, and Uzza reaches to keep the ark from falling. The verse holds a protective impulse beside the boundary around what is set apart: the wish to steady it does not make every touch harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A protective intention makes any reach safe. Here the hand reaches to prevent a fall, yet the sacred boundary remains.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְטוּ
shametu
GROWS FROM
שמט
Let drop or release; in this form, slip or lose footing.
The verb rendered “stumbled” belongs to the same root family as words for release and letting something fall. The verse gives the oxen’s loss of footing a sound that also carries the sense of relinquishing a hold.
ALSO GROWS
shemittah: release; remission of a debt
שְׁמִטָּה
The same root names a deliberate release, linking the oxen’s slip with the language of letting go.
tishmetennah: let it rest or release it
תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה
In the instruction about the land’s rest, this root describes allowing something to lie fallow rather than holding it in use.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send out, stretch forth, or release.
“put forth” in this verse is vayyishlach. The hand is not merely extended; it is sent forth. This is the same root family that carries the sense of release, even though here the hand is sent out to grasp and hold.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: send, send away, or release
שָׁלַח
The verse’s reaching hand is a sending outward, set against the oxen’s slipping.
Shiloach: sent forth; the name of a watercourse
שִׁלֹחַ
The name carries the same sending-forth root, showing its movement in water as well as in Uzza’s hand.
עֻזָּא
ʿUzzā
GROWS FROM
עזז
Be strong or mighty; strength.
Uzza’s name belongs to the strength family. In this moment, strength appears as a hand reaching to steady what is slipping, and the verse leaves that protective reach inside the danger of the scene.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: strong or fierce
עַז
This adjective from the strength family echoes the force carried in Uzza’s name.
ʿoz: strength or might
עֹז
The noun makes the name’s sense plain: strength is present in the scene, but it does not give the hand authority over the ark.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart has boundaries, and the impulse to protect it does not erase them.
And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:THE THREAD
And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.The oxen’s verb, שָׁמְטוּ (shametu), comes from the root שמט, also behind the word for “release” here. In one verse the root describes a loss of footing; in the other, the relinquishing of a claim, slipping and release belong to the same word family.
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