Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Chronicles 5:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of men an hundred thousand.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people.
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 5:18–5:22
Records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people. Read 1 Chronicles 5:21 within 5:18–5:22. The complete unit records: Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh field a large force, fight Hagarite allies, pray, seize people and animals, and occupy the land until captivity.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The victory account joins trust language to immense death and captured lives, requiring the human cost to remain visible. In this exact position, the line beginning “And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep…” records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people.
Follow the Context
- Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh field a large force, fight Hagarite allies, pray, seize people and animals, and occupy the land until captivity.
- The victory account joins trust language to immense death and captured lives, requiring the human cost to remain visible.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep…”
In plain language: Records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people.
The line beginning “And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep…” records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people.
Why it matters: The wording carries a material literary, historical, temple, royal-power, violence, ethnic, illness, gender, exile, reception, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Calling the war 'of God' does not authorize modern holy war, enslavement, ethnic hatred, seizure of pastoral land, or claims that victory proves righteousness.
What Remains True
Records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people. This concrete detail supports a bounded truth: Accounts of conflict must name agents, victims, land, loss, and literary judgment without converting ancient war into a modern command or ethnic hostility.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because this verse records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people, keep it inside 5:18–5:22, 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 5:21 records vast seizure of animals and one hundred thousand people. Use 5:18–5:22, paraphrase “And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep…,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 5:18–5:22 — Eastern tribes cry to God in a lethal warSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
1 Chronicles 5:21 remains within this thought-unit limit: The totals, opponents, date, geography, captivity of people, and theological causation cannot be independently reconstructed with certainty; the narrative's judgment must not erase victims.
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 5:18–5:22, 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 5:18–5:22
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 5:18–5:22, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗