What Does 1 Chronicles 21:19 Mean in the King James?
And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
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
“Saying” and “spake” repeat one Hebrew root, so the verse shows a spoken word becoming David’s upward movement in the LORD’s nature.
THE MEANING
A word spoken in the LORD’s name carries the nature of the one named; here, David goes up at that word, and speech becomes movement. The verse holds hearing and action together, showing how what is spoken can shape the path beneath a person’s feet.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that the LORD’s name is only a label attached to religious speech: the name names the nature the words claim to carry.
THE ROOT
בִּדְבַר
bidvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
D-B-R
Speak; a spoken word or matter.
“saying / spake” in this verse is bidvar. “Saying” and “spake” come from the same Hebrew root, binding the utterance to the act of speaking. David’s movement is the response into which that spoken word resolves.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, utterance, or matter.
דָּבָר
Speech and the matter spoken belong to the same word family.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb in the verse, repeating the root of “saying.”
בְּשֵׁם
bəshem
GROWS FROM
שם
shem
Name, standing, character, or reputation.
The phrase “in the name” carries more than identification: שֵׁם (shem, name) can also mark character and standing. It frames Gad’s words as belonging to the LORD’s nature, giving “name” depth beyond a spoken label.
ALSO GROWS
shemot: Names.
שְׁמוֹת
The plural keeps the same idea of identity carried by a name.
shem tov: A good name; reputation.
שֵׁם טוֹב
A name can include character and standing, not only the sound used to identify someone.
וַיַּעַל
wayyaʿal
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-L-H
Rise, ascend, or go up.
“went up” in this verse is wayyaʿal. The verb makes David’s response directional and embodied: he moves upward. Its related עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, burnt offering) is an offering that rises, echoing what is lifted toward God without making travel and sacrifice the same act.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, rise, or ascend.
עָלָה
This is the action named in the verse: David goes up.
ʿōlāh: Burnt offering; literally, that which rises.
עֹלָה
The shared root links upward movement with what is lifted in offering.
THE PATTERN
A word received as carrying God’s nature moves from speech into action.
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.THE THREAD
The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.Both verses use שֵׁם (shem, name). Proverbs pictures the LORD’s name as a strong tower a person can enter, opening “in the name of the LORD” as speech grounded in the LORD’s nature, not merely a label attached to it.
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