What Does 1 Chronicles 19:13 Mean in the King James?

Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.

1 Chronicles 19:13 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Hebrew uses one root for “be of good courage” and “behave valiantly,” making courage a shared strengthening while the outcome remains with the LORD.

THE MEANING

You and those with you strengthen one another to stand for your people and the cities of your God. Your courage is real, and the LORD remains the one who does what is good in his sight.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that courage means controlling the outcome: the LORD’s sight, not yours, determines what is good.

THE ROOT

חֲזַק

ḥăzaq

GROWS FROM

חזק

ḥazaq

To be strong, become firm, or strengthen.

“be of good courage / behave valiantly” in this verse is ḥăzaq. Both phrases grow from the same root: first “be strong,” then “let us strengthen ourselves.” English can make courage and valiant action sound like separate qualities; Hebrew joins them as firmness that becomes mutual strengthening.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāzaq: To be strong, grow firm, or prevail.

חָזַק

This form underlies “be of good courage,” grounding courage in becoming firm.

ḥizzēq: To strengthen or make firm.

חִזֵּק

This form names the strengthening carried into the verse’s collective “let us strengthen ourselves.”

הַטּוֹב

hatov

GROWS FROM

טוב

tov

To be good, pleasing, or beneficial.

The verse places “good” inside the LORD’s sight: what is good is measured by what the LORD sees, even when the outcome is not yet known. The word can carry the sense of what is beneficial, giving the LORD’s action both goodness and purpose.

ALSO GROWS

tov: Good, pleasing, or beneficial.

טוֹב

The verse uses this word for what the LORD sees as good.

tovah: A good thing or benefit.

טוֹבָה

This form shows how the root can name goodness as something concrete and beneficial.

THE PATTERN

Scripture joins human courage and action to God’s presence and judgment of what is good.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Deuteronomy 31:6 · KJVCourage stands alongside the assurance that the LORD is present and will not abandon you.

Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.

2 Chronicles 20:17 · KJVThe people take their place and stand firm while the LORD’s deliverance remains his work.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13 · KJVYour willing and doing are held together with God’s work within you.

THE THREAD

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

1 Samuel 30:6 · KJV

The same root, ⁨חזק⁩ (ḥazaq), meaning “be strong” or “strengthen,” describes David strengthening himself in the LORD. Here, the verse extends that strengthening into the shared resolve of a whole group.

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