1 Chronicles 21:30 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 30. But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword.

Read It With

1 Chronicles 21:28–22:1

Closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword. Read 1 Chronicles 21:30 within 21:28–22:1. The complete unit records: David continues sacrificing at Ornan's floor because the angel's sword makes Gibeon inaccessible to him, then declares this site God's house and Israel's altar.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The census movement ends not by forgetting judgment but by locating future worship where mercy interrupts destruction. In this exact position, the line beginning “But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was…” closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword.

Follow the Context

David continues sacrificing at Ornan's floor because the angel's sword makes Gibeon inaccessible to him, then declares this site God's house and Israel's altar.
The census movement ends not by forgetting judgment but by locating future worship where mercy interrupts destruction.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was…”

In plain language: Closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword.

The line beginning “But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was…” closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword.

Why it matters: The wording carries a material literary, historical, temple, royal-power, violence, ethnic, illness, gender, exile, reception, or misuse boundary.

How certain? probable

What This Verse Is Not Saying

The site declaration does not authorize modern territorial seizure, speculative temple politics, or claims that fear and miracle establish present property rights.

What Remains True

Closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword. This concrete detail supports a bounded truth: Faithful succession joins remembered promise with present responsibility; inherited office is never hereditary moral or spiritual superiority.

How It Can Shape Life

Because this verse closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword, keep it inside 21:28–22:1, compare its Samuel-Kings relationship honestly, protect affected people from coercion or stigma, and apply only the accountable principle the complete unit supports.

Teach It Back

Explain why 1 Chronicles 21:30 closes with David afraid to inquire at Gibeon because of the angel's sword. Use 21:28–22:1, paraphrase “But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was…,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.

Explain the verse in context

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 1 Chronicles 21:28–22:1 — Fear, answered sacrifice, and declaration identify the temple site

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

1 Chronicles 21:30 remains within this thought-unit limit: Chronicles uniquely connects the census site to the temple, while the relation to Moriah, Gibeon practice, chronology, and later topography remains a literary-historical question.

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 21:28–22:1, 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 21:28–22:1

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation

Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.

Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 21:28–22:1, verse-attached translation and translator notes

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record