What Does 1 Chronicles 22:10 Mean?
He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will set firm the throne of his kingdom over Israel for the ages.
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
He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.THE KEY
“Build” and “son” share a Hebrew word-family, so the house for the Name is a living lineage as well as a dwelling.
THE MEANING
Here, the house is built for שֵׁם (shem, “name”): it carries the nature the name represents. The son carries that house forward in relation to the father, and the throne stands over Israel with a horizon reaching עוֹלָם (ʿolam, “the age”). Dwelling, identity, kinship, and governance belong to one continuing promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The divine name is merely an inscription attached to a building; here it is joined to a living father-son relationship and a continuing line.
THE ROOT
יִבְנֶה
yivneh
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
To build or build up.
יִבְנֶה (yivneh, “he will build”) stands beside בֵּן (ben, “son”), words sharing the build-family’s consonants. With שֵׁם (shem, “name”) carrying the nature it represents, the house for the Name continues as a living line as well as a structure.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son.
בֵּן
This word-family joins building to the continuation of a household.
banuy: Built, constructed.
בָּנוּי
This form names what the act of building brings into being.
עוֹלָם
ʿolam
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
Age or remote time, associated with what lies beyond view.
“for the ages” in this verse is ʿolam. The Hebrew עוֹלָם (ʿolam, “age”) gives “for ever” the image of a far-reaching span of time. Its consonants also appear in words for what is hidden, suggesting a horizon whose full reach remains out of sight.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalam: To be hidden or conceal.
עָלַם
It shares the consonants that link עוֹלָם (ʿolam, “age”) with what lies beyond sight.
neʿlam: Hidden, out of sight.
נֶעְלָם
This form echoes the unseen horizon within the promise of an age-reaching throne.
THE PATTERN
A house, its name, and its heir form one continuity of building.
And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.He shall build a house for my name, and I will set firm the throne of his kingdom for the ages.But the Anointed One, as a son, is over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our open speech and the boasting of the hope, firm to the end.THE THREAD
And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.The phrase rendered “obtain children” is וְאִבָּנֶה (ve’ibbāneh, “that I may be built up”), from בנה (banah, “build”). Hebrew pictures lineage itself as a form of building, joining “he shall build a house” and “he shall be my son” as one image of a house carried forward.
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