What Does 1 Chronicles 21:13 Mean in the King James?

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

1 Chronicles 21:13 · 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

David names distress as a narrow place, then chooses whose hand will hold him: compassion changes what it means to fall.

THE MEANING

When a great narrowness closes around you, this verse lets you name the pressure plainly. The hands before you are not interchangeable: human power can hold you, while the LORD’s hand is named by abundant compassion. Trust takes shape inside the pressure, before it has passed.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that every hand holds with the same kind of power dissolves here: the character of the hand matters.

THE ROOT

צַר

tsar

GROWS FROM

צרר

ṣ-r-r

To bind, press in, or make narrow.

The Hebrew calls distress a narrowing: “strait to me” is the experience of being pressed into a tight place. The word echoes the larger movement from constriction toward spaciousness.

ALSO GROWS

tsarah: Distress, trouble

צָרָה

It shows that distress and narrowness belong to the same word family.

Mitzrayim: Egypt; associated in this reading with “the two narrows”

מִצְרַיִם

The shared narrowing sounds place this personal distress within scripture’s wider arc from constriction toward release.

רַחֲמָיו

rachamav

GROWS FROM

רחם

r-ḥ-m

Compassion and tender care, with an image of the womb.

“His mercies” is the language of compassion, not only a tally of kind acts. David’s choice rests on the nature of the one whose hand he enters: a hand marked by tender care.

ALSO GROWS

rechem: Womb

רֶחֶם

The womb image gives compassion a sense of sheltering, life-bearing tenderness.

rachum: Compassionate

רַחוּם

This describes the compassionate nature David trusts when he chooses the LORD’s hand.

דָּוִד

David

GROWS FROM

דוד

d-w-d

Beloved.

David’s name carries the nature of the beloved, yet the verse places him inside real constriction. Belovedness does not erase vulnerability; here, it stands beside a choice to entrust that vulnerability to compassion.

ALSO GROWS

dod: Beloved; also a close kinsman

דּוֹד

The name’s root makes belovedness part of the voice speaking in this moment of distress.

dodim: Love, endearment

דּוֹדִים

This related word carries the root’s language of affection and belovedness.

THE PATTERN

In vulnerability, the character of the one holding power matters more than the mere fact of being held.

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Psalm 118:8 · KJVThe verse places trust in the LORD above reliance on human power.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Psalm 103:13 · KJVThe LORD’s compassion is pictured as tender care, the nature David names in his plea.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

2 Corinthians 1:9 · KJVEven under the pressure of death, trust shifts from human capacity to God.

THE THREAD

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Exodus 34:6 · KJV

The “mercies” David names and the LORD’s “merciful” self-description share the ⁨רחם⁩ root of compassion. David’s choice rests on a nature the LORD names: the hand he enters is marked by tender care.

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