What Does 1 Chronicles 2:55 Mean?
And the families of the scribes who settled at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Suchathites. These are the Kenites who went out from Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.
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 the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.THE KEY
The word “scribes” grows from a root of counting and recording, so the people who preserve a lineage are themselves preserved in its record.
THE MEANING
A place, a vocation, and an inherited connection can all belong to your story at once. This verse holds the scribes at Jabez alongside the Kenite families and the house of Rechab in a single record.
THE ROOT
סֹפְרִים
soferim
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
Count, recount, or record.
“scribes” in this verse is soferim. The word for a scribe grows from a root of counting, recounting, and recording, so the verse’s record-keepers are themselves gathered into the record. The lineage is carried not only by descent but also by the act of naming and preserving it.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: Book or written record
סֵפֶר
The families in this verse are held in a written record, the work associated with the scribes.
mispar: Number or count
מִסְפָּר
The root’s counting sense connects a record of people with the act of counting them.
sippur: Account or story
סִפּוּר
A list of family names also carries an account of who belongs and where their connections lead.
THE PATTERN
Being counted, recorded, or named keeps belonging visible across generations and communities.
The LORD counts when he writes up the peoples; this one is born there. Selah.Then those who stand in awe of the LORD spoke, each one to his neighbor, and the LORD bent his ear and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written before his face for those in awe of the LORD, who reckon his name.Yet do not rejoice in this, that the breaths submit to you, but rejoice instead that your names have been written in the heavens.THE THREAD
The LORD counts when he writes up the peoples; this one is born there. Selah.The verb translated “count” belongs to the same ספר (s-p-r) root family as “scribes” in this verse. It opens the family list as an act of counting and recording people into a place of belonging.
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