What Does 1 Chronicles 17:17 Mean in the King James?
And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God.
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
God calls the present gift small because his sight already reaches the far horizon where David is seen at a higher station.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now through the distance between a gift and the future God sees: what feels like the whole measure can still be small beside what lies ahead. You are regarded beyond your visible rank, within a horizon the present cannot measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your current standing is the full measure of how God sees you.
THE ROOT
לְמֵרָחוֹק
lemerachoq
GROWS FROM
רחק
r-ḥ-q
To be far or distant.
“a great while to come” in this verse is lemerachoq. The Hebrew phrase pictures the future spatially: David’s house is spoken of as reaching “to the far-off.” Time becomes distance, and God’s horizon extends beyond what the present can see.
ALSO GROWS
rachōq: Far, distant.
רָחוֹק
This is the distance embedded in the future God speaks about.
merchaq: Distance, a distant place.
מֶרְחָק
It makes the verse’s far-reaching horizon concrete: the house extends beyond the near.
hirchiq: To put far away, make distant.
הִרְחִיק
This form shows the root can describe distance being created or extended.
הַמַּעֲלָה
hamma'alah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, rise, ascend.
The word behind “high degree” belongs to the root of ascent: ma’alah can mean an ascent, step, or degree. David is seen at an elevated place, with rank expressed through the image of rising.
ALSO GROWS
alah: To go up, rise, ascend.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the movement within the idea of high degree.
ma'alah: Ascent, step, degree.
מַעֲלָה
It is the same word family as the phrase describing David’s elevated standing.
olah: Ascending offering.
עוֹלָה
This word preserves the root’s upward movement in another form.
וּרְאִיתַנִי
ure'itani
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look, perceive.
“regarded me” in this verse is ure'itani. The word translated “regarded” literally means “you saw me.” The verse presents David’s elevated status as something within God’s sight, and the same verb later describes how God sees beyond outward appearance.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: To see, look, perceive.
רָאָה
This is the verb behind God’s act of regarding David.
mar'eh: Appearance, sight, vision.
מַרְאֶה
It links seeing with what comes into view.
ro'eh: Seer, one who sees.
רֹאֶה
It names the one whose perception reaches beyond a surface view.
THE PATTERN
God’s regard reaches beyond present stature and places the low among the exalted.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.THE THREAD
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.The word translated “regarded” in Chronicles comes from ראה, “to see”; this verse repeats that same root to describe God’s sight. It opens David’s “high degree” as something God sees beyond outward stature.
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