What Does 1 Chronicles 17:8 Mean in the King James?
And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.
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 “name” here is a nature made visible: it takes shape in a life accompanied along every path while enemies are cut away before it.
THE MEANING
You are met as someone whose whole path is accompanied, wherever you walk. The verse holds that presence beside enemies being cut off before you and a name being made visible among people. The removal is forceful, and the verse leaves that force intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that you must manufacture a name by your own force or defeat every enemy alone; here the name is given, and the threat is cut off in the presence of one who accompanies you.
THE ROOT
שֵׁם
shem
GROWS FROM
שם
Name, designation, reputation: the identity by which someone is known.
The word translated “name” carries the sense of how a person is known, not merely what they are called. The name made here is a public nature, visible in the life that is accompanied and in what is cut away before it.
ALSO GROWS
shemot: Names; the plural form of “name.”
שְׁמוֹת
The plural keeps the focus on identities and designations by which people are known.
shem tov: A good name; a good reputation.
שֵׁם טוֹב
This phrase makes explicit the public reputation carried by a name, the dimension of “name” that the verse enlarges.
כָּרַת
karat
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
To cut, sever, or cut away.
“cut off” in this verse is karat. The enemies are severed from before David; the verb holds the sharpness of that removal. The same root appears in the phrase for cutting a covenant, joining severance with the making of a binding promise.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The root that names the cutting away of enemies also names the cutting that establishes a covenant.
karet: Excision; being cut off.
כָּרֵת
This form keeps the root’s force of removal visible in the phrase “cut off all thine enemies.”
הָלַכְתָּ
halakhta
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To walk, go, or proceed along a course.
“walked” in this verse is halakhta. The word can describe bodily walking or the course of a life moving forward. “Whithersoever” makes the accompaniment reach every stretch of that movement, not just its destination.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: One who walks or goes.
הוֹלֵךְ
This form makes the root’s ongoing movement concrete: a person proceeding along the way.
halikhah: Walking; a journey or course of movement.
הֲלִיכָה
This branch opens “walked” beyond a single step to the whole course over which the presence extends.
THE PATTERN
Presence accompanies a person’s path, protection meets the threats along it, and a name becomes visible through that journey.
And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.THE THREAD
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:This shares שֵׁם (shem, name or reputation): a name is the visible identity by which a person is known. Here that identity becomes a blessing; in Chronicles, its making is joined to accompaniment and enemies cut away.
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