Verse Lens · Context pointer
1 Chronicles 11:17 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 17. 17And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, that is at the gate!
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse advances the thought unit through its next name, action, speech, or consequence: “And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Three risk their lives for Bethlehem water.”
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 11:15–19
Read 1 Chronicles 11:17 with 11:15–19. The selected wording supplies one step in the thought unit through its next name, action, speech, or consequence; the surrounding verses supply the relationships and outcome summarized here: Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Why It Needs Context
1 Chronicles 11:17 depends on 11:15–19; isolating “And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well…” would detach a supporting name, action, quotation, number, object, or transition from “Three risk their lives for Bethlehem water.”
Read 1 Chronicles 11:15–19 together
Why these verses belong together: 1 Chronicles 11:15–19 forms the complete movement “Three risk their lives for Bethlehem water”: Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Verse 15. 15 Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
Verse 16. 16 And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines’ garrison was then at Beth-lehem.
Verse 17. 17 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, that is at the gate!
Verse 18. 18 And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD,
Verse 19. 19 And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 11:15–19 — Three risk their lives for Bethlehem waterSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 11:15–19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 11:15–19
Open source ↗