What Does 1 Chronicles 17:26 Mean in the King James?
And now, LORD, thou art God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant:
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 promise is also a speaking: God’s goodness is named before it is visible.
THE MEANING
As you read, you meet God as the One who speaks goodness to the servant. That good is already named, even while its fulfillment remains ahead. What you can see now does not exhaust what has been spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that goodness is real only once it becomes visible: here, the goodness is spoken before its fulfillment.
THE ROOT
וַתְּדַבֵּר
vatdabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or utter; the related noun דָּבָר (dābār) can mean a word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew verb behind “hast promised” is “you spoke,” making the promise audible before its fulfillment is seen. The same root’s noun can mean both “word” and “matter,” joining what God speaks with the good spoken to the servant.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke; speaks.
דִּבֵּר
The verb brings the promise into view as spoken goodness.
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This range lets the spoken word and the promised good share the same root.
הַטּוֹבָה
haṭṭōvāh
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, pleasing, or beneficial.
The Hebrew can carry the sense of “this good thing,” giving the promise a concrete object. Its root also forms a verb for doing good or benefiting, so goodness is more than an abstract quality here.
ALSO GROWS
ṭōv: Good, pleasing, or beneficial.
טוֹב
This is the core quality named in the promise.
hēṭīv: To do good or benefit.
הֵיטִיב
This verbal form shows the root’s movement from goodness as a quality to goodness enacted.
THE PATTERN
What God speaks as good is not empty sound; it moves toward its fulfillment.
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Isaiah’s “word,” דָּבָר (dābār, word or matter), shares the root דבר with the Hebrew verb rendered “hast promised” here. Isaiah opens the movement inside that root: what is spoken goes forth and accomplishes its purpose.
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