What Does 1 Chronicles 1:31 Mean?
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael.THE KEY
The list of names sits inside Ishmael, “God hears”, so even this genealogy carries the memory of a heard cry.
THE MEANING
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah remain distinct names within a lineage identified by Ishmael, “God hears.” The family record carries that meaning alongside each name, so the verse preserves more than a count of descendants.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמָעֵאל
Yishmaʿel
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, attend.
Ishmael joins yishmaʿ, “he hears,” with El, “God.” The name keeps hearing within the lineage it identifies, so this list carries a meaning alongside the names and descent.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear, listen; the imperative form of the root.
שְׁמַע
The name’s verbal core shares this root of hearing and listening.
shemuʿah: A report or news, something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows how hearing can be carried forward as a report, as Ishmael’s name carries its meaning through the family record.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets hearing persist beyond a cry: it becomes part of the names and memory attached to people.
And the messenger of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Ishmael, God-hears; for the LORD has heard and responded to your bending low.And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.And said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of compassion have been remembered before the eyes of God.THE THREAD
And the messenger of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Ishmael, God-hears; for the LORD has heard and responded to your bending low.Ishmael is formed from yishmaʿ, “he hears,” and El, “God”; Genesis gives the hearing of Hagar’s affliction as the reason for the name. Here that name identifies the lineage, carrying the root of hearing into the list.
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