What Does 1 Chronicles 21:15 Mean in the King James?

And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1 Chronicles 21:15 · 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

The verse moves from God sending destruction toward Jerusalem to God commanding the destroying hand to release.

THE MEANING

At Yerushalayim, a name carrying the sense of wholeness, destruction is already underway; then the LORD sees, relents concerning the calamity, and speaks a limit: “It is enough.” The verse holds the violence and the restraint together: the harm is real, yet its reach is not beyond being stopped.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

That once destruction begins, it cannot be stopped.

THE ROOT

הֶרֶף

heref

GROWS FROM

רפה

raphah

Loosen, slacken, let drop; release.

The word translated “stay” is ⁨הֶרֶף⁩, an imperative from ⁨רפה⁩: loosen, slacken, let the hand drop. The same root forms ⁨הַרְפּוּ⁩, “release” or “let go”; here the halt is embodied as a hand commanded to loosen its grip.

ALSO GROWS

harpu: Let go, release; cease.

הַרְפּוּ

This form gives the command “release” in a plural address; here that release is directed to the destroying hand.

hirpah: He loosened, let go.

הִרְפָּה

This form names the act of loosening, making the hand’s stopping a concrete release.

וַיִּנָּחֶם

wayyinnachem

GROWS FROM

נחם

nacham

Relent, be moved; comfort or console.

The verb translated “repented” comes from a root also used for comfort and consolation. Its shades show a response to the calamity: the LORD relents, and that response becomes the spoken boundary, “It is enough.”

ALSO GROWS

nicham: Relent; be comforted.

נִחַם

This form shares the root’s language of relenting, the movement expressed when the LORD regards the calamity.

menachem: One who consoles; a comforter.

מְנַחֵם

This branch reveals the root’s other shade, consolation, beside the verse’s act of relenting.

nechamah: Comfort, consolation.

נֶחָמָה

The noun keeps the root’s consoling sense visible alongside its meaning of relenting.

וַיִּשְׁלַח

vayyishlach

GROWS FROM

שלח

shalach

Send forth; release, let go.

The opening verb places the messenger in motion: God sends him toward Jerusalem. This root also carries the sense of release, so the verse holds a force sent forth beside the command that releases the hand from continuing.

ALSO GROWS

shaluach: Sent, dispatched; one who is sent.

שָׁלוּחַ

This branch makes the messenger’s status part of the root’s sending language.

shilluaḥ: Sending away, dismissal; release.

שִׁלּוּחַ

This branch shows that sending and releasing belong to the same root family.

Shiloach: “Sent”; the name of a spring or water channel.

שִׁילֹחַ

The name carries the root’s sense of what is sent forth, echoing the verse’s movement from sending to release.

THE PATTERN

In the face of destruction, a word can arrest its reach and set a limit to what is already underway.

And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Exodus 32:14 · KJVThe same root for relenting appears as the LORD turns from the calamity he had said would come.

But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

Psalm 78:38 · KJVThe verse shows compassion repeatedly holding destruction back and turning anger away.

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Revelation 7:3 · KJVA direct command limits the reach of harm already poised to fall.

THE THREAD

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

2 Samuel 24:16 · KJV

The same verb from ⁨נחם⁩ appears here in “the LORD repented him of the evil,” followed by the same command, “It is enough: stay now thine hand.” Chronicles names the LORD’s seeing; Samuel makes the angel’s outstretched hand explicit, showing relenting as a limit placed on destruction already in motion.

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