What Does 1 Chronicles 21:7 Mean in the King James?
And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
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 Hebrew says the thing was evil in God’s eyes, and that judgment lands as a blow on Israel.
THE MEANING
You meet a stark claim: God sees this thing as evil, and Israel receives the blow as a people. The verse holds the violence of that judgment in plain view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that wrongdoing’s consequences always stay with the one who commits it is undone here: the verse says the strike falls on Israel.
THE ROOT
וַיַּךְ
wayyakh
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike or inflict a blow.
“smote” in this verse is wayyakh. The word makes judgment bodily: Israel receives a strike. This word family names both a blow and the one who delivers it, holding impact and agency together.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The related noun makes the force of the verb concrete: this is harm that lands.
makkeh: One who strikes.
מַכֶּה
This form names the agent of the strike, echoing how the verse makes God the actor and Israel the one struck.
וַיֵּרַע
vayyēraʿ
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad, evil, or grievous.
The phrase holds a moral appraisal, this thing is evil in God’s eyes, beneath the KJV’s “was displeased.” Related words in this family also speak of harm or calamity, placing judgment beside its lived consequence.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad or evil.
רַע
This related form makes explicit the moral judgment carried by “displeased.”
raʿah: Harm, calamity, or misfortune.
רָעָה
This related word brings the consequence of judgment into view alongside the appraisal of the thing itself.
THE PATTERN
A deed or wound can cross the boundary of the individual and become a consequence carried by a whole community.
And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.THE THREAD
And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.The same Hebrew root for “smote” appears in David’s words about the people being struck. He then names his own wrongdoing and asks what the sheep have done, bringing the king’s responsibility into view beside the communal blow.
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