What Does 1 Chronicles 14:3 Mean?
And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David brought forth more sons and daughters.
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
And David took more wives at Jerusalem: and David begat more sons and daughters.THE KEY
The same Hebrew word for “more” appears twice, binding wives taken and children begotten into one expanding household.
THE MEANING
The verse makes increase concrete: David takes more wives, and David begets more sons and daughters. The same Hebrew word, עוֹד (ʿôḏ, “more/again”), sits behind both instances of “more,” so the expansion is relational and embodied rather than a bare number. Jerusalem carries שָׁלוֹם (shalōm, “wholeness”) in a doubled form, the two wholenesses, placing this expansion within the movement toward spaciousness.
THE ROOT
עוֹד
ʿôḏ
GROWS FROM
עוד
ʿ-w-d
to continue or repeat; as an adverb, still, again, yet, or further
The verse repeats the same word twice, rendered “more” in both clauses, though its range also includes “again,” “still,” and “yet.” That wider sense links increase with continuation: what David takes into the household and what he brings forth extend its life.
ALSO GROWS
ʿôḏ: more, further
עוֹד
This is the word’s first appearance in the verse, following David’s taking of wives.
ʿôḏ: again
עוֹד
Genesis 4:25 uses the same word for Adam knowing his wife “again,” linking repetition with renewed life.
ʿôḏ: still, yet
עוֹד
These senses show continuation: something remains or carries on, not only an increase in count.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
to be whole, complete, or intact
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The place-name carries שָׁלוֹם (shalōm, “wholeness”), and its doubled form holds the two wholenesses. The verse places this household’s expansion in a name resonant with wholeness, within the movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
shalōm: wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
This is the name’s central resonance: a state of being made whole.
shalēm: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit.
shillēm: repay, make good
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe restoring what is owed, another form of making whole.
דָּוִד
Dāwîḏ
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
beloved; love or affection
David’s name carries the nature “beloved.” The verse repeats his name as the subject, David takes, and David begets, keeping the person and his actions visible rather than reducing the household to a rising count.
ALSO GROWS
dōḏ: beloved, beloved one
דּוֹד
This is the name-word that carries the meaning “beloved” into David’s name.
dōḏîm: loves, caresses
דּוֹדִים
The same root appears in intimate language of love, giving the name-word a relational register.
THE PATTERN
Increase takes form through relationships and generations, not as an abstract number.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Bear fruit and multiply, and fill the earth, and tread it under your foot, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the winged of the heavens, and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth."Look, children are the LORD's portion; and the fruit of the womb is a wage.But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and filled out in Egypt.THE THREAD
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth, the placed one, for she said, God has placed for me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.Genesis uses עוֹד (ʿôḏ, “again”), the same word Chronicles renders “more” twice, so both passages mark continuation with one Hebrew word. Its “bare” also comes from ילד (y-l-d, “bear/beget”), the root behind Chronicles’ “begat,” joining repetition to the life brought forth.
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