What Does 1 Chronicles 1:36 Mean?
The sons of Eliphaz, Teman, and Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.
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
The sons of Eliphaz; Teman, and Omar, Zephi, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.THE KEY
The heading says “sons,” yet the list keeps Timna beside Eliphaz’s line at the point where Amalek enters it.
THE MEANING
This verse presents lineage as a web of relationships: Timna and Amalek appear within the family line introduced through Eliphaz. Your name, too, lives within relationships and inheritance; no name stands alone. Genesis names the bond directly: Timna bears Eliphaz a son, Amalek.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A family line moves only through a simple chain of fathers and sons.
THE ROOT
תִּמְנָע
Timnaʿ
GROWS FROM
מנע
m-n-ʿ
To withhold, hold back, or restrain.
Timna’s name is commonly linked to מנע (mānaʿ), “to withhold” or “hold back.” That root places the language of restraint inside a genealogy that also preserves her connection to Amalek, without specifying what, if anything, was withheld from her.
ALSO GROWS
mānaʿ: Withhold, keep back
מָנַע
In Genesis 30:2, Jacob asks who has “withheld” the fruit of the womb; the same root gives Timna’s name an echo of restraint.
yimnaʿ: Will withhold
יִמְנַע
Psalm 84:11 says the LORD “will withhold” no good thing; the root can describe both what is held back and the lifting of that restraint.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s genealogies keep women visible as named links in the lines of descent.
And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek; these were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.Judah brought forth Perez and Zerah out of Tamar, and Perez brought forth Hezron, and Hezron brought forth Ram.Salmon brought forth Boaz out of Rahab, and Boaz brought forth Obed out of Ruth, and Obed brought forth Jesse.THE THREAD
And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek; these were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.Chronicles places Timna and Amalek within the line introduced through Eliphaz; Genesis names their relationship directly. The repeated name Timna makes her place in the compressed list the hinge through which Amalek enters the line.
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