What Does 2 Samuel 24:17 Mean in the King James?
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 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
David owns the missing, then asks why the sheep are bearing its blow.
THE MEANING
When a consequence spreads beyond the person whose act set it in motion, David’s words keep responsibility and suffering distinct. He names his own missing and wrongdoing, asks what the sheep have done, and offers himself and his household to bear the hand. Those under the blow are not automatically its source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that everyone caught in a punishment must have caused the offense.
THE ROOT
חָטָאתִי
ḥāṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
חטא (ḥāṭāʾ): to miss, miss the mark, or incur guilt.
“I have sinned” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾtî. The form is first person: “I have missed” or “I have incurred guilt.” David’s ownership stays with the speaker while the sheep are named separately from the failure and its consequences.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, sin, or incur guilt.
חָטָא
This verb makes the confession about a specific failure, not a vague sense of badness.
ḥēṭʾ: Missing; an offense or sin.
חֵטְא
The noun carries the same root into the name of the failure David takes responsibility for.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Missing or sin; also an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root names both the failure and an offering associated with it, linking admitted fault to what follows from it.
הִרְשַׁעְתִּי
hirshaʿtî
GROWS FROM
רשע
רשע (r-š-ʿ): to be wicked or guilty; in a causative form, to act wickedly or declare guilty.
“I have done wickedly” in this verse is hirshaʿtî. This second confession intensifies the first: David names his act as culpable, not merely as a shortfall. He repeats ownership before asking whether the people under the blow have done anything to warrant it.
ALSO GROWS
rešaʿ: Wickedness or guilt.
רֶשַׁע
The noun gives the quality David assigns to his own act.
rāšāʿ: A wicked or guilty person.
רָשָׁע
This form names the person associated with guilt, sharpening the contrast with David’s question about the sheep.
hiršîaʿ: To act wickedly; in some forms, to declare guilty.
הִרְשִׁיעַ
This verb shares the root and shows its connection to both wrongdoing and the judgment of guilt.
דָּוִד
Dāwîd
GROWS FROM
דוד
דּוֹד (dōd): beloved or kinsman; דָּוִד (Dāwîd) carries the sense “beloved.”
David’s name carries belovedness through the דוד consonantal family. Here, the beloved king claims responsibility and asks that the hand fall on his own house instead of the flock.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved; also kinsman or uncle.
דּוֹד
This related form carries the belovedness embedded in David’s name.
dōdîm: Love or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The same consonantal family connects the name with affection, adding tenderness to David’s plea for the flock.
THE PATTERN
The one entrusted with a flock bears the cost of its care, and the flock’s suffering does not by itself make it culpable.
Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.THE THREAD
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.The Hebrew verb translated “sinned” in both verses comes from חטא (ḥāṭāʾ), “to miss” or “incur guilt.” Psalm 51 places that confession before God’s sight; here the same admission turns toward the sheep and the question of who bears the blow.
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