What Does 1 Chronicles 26:13 Mean in the King James?
And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers, for every gate.
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 lot falls across the whole household, so rank does not choose who receives each gate.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks wherever a place or responsibility is being assigned: small and great stand within the same process, according to their fathers’ houses, for every gate. The Hebrew verb translated “cast” means “make fall,” so the assignment comes through a shared procedure rather than being claimed by status.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that stature decides how an assignment is received: here, the small and great enter the same lot for every gate.
THE ROOT
וַיַּפִּילוּ
vayyappîlû
GROWS FROM
נפל
To fall; in the causative form, to make fall.
English says “cast,” but the Hebrew verb pictures making the lots fall. That shift reveals the assignment as an outcome of a shared process: the small and great are included in the same act for each gate.
ALSO GROWS
nāphal: To fall.
נָפַל
The root’s basic motion is the fall that the casting verb sets in motion.
hippîl: To cause to fall; to cast down.
הִפִּיל
This causative form makes clear that casting a lot is literally making it fall to determine an assignment.
THE PATTERN
A shared lot assigns places through one procedure, even when the people involved differ in rank or role.
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.THE THREAD
The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.The same Hebrew noun גּוֹרָל (gōrāl, “lot”) appears in both verses. Proverbs shows the lot ending contention and dividing the mighty, opening the small-and-great assignment here as a shared way to settle who receives each place.
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