What Does 1 Chronicles 23:20 Mean?

Of the sons of Uzziel, Michah the head, and Jesiah the second.

1 Chronicles 23:20 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Of the sons of Uzziel; Michah the first, and Jesiah the second.

THE KEY

Michah is called “the head”, the word English renders “first” carries the image of a head at the front of the line.

THE MEANING

This verse preserves each son by name and place in the family line. Michah is the head, and Jesiah follows as the second; identity here includes both relationship and order.

THE ROOT

הָרֹאשׁ

ha-rosh

GROWS FROM

ראש

Head, top, chief, or beginning.

The Hebrew calls Michah “the head,” giving the first place the image of the head at the front. The list marks position as part of how this family line is remembered.

ALSO GROWS

rosh: head; chief

רֹאשׁ

It is the word used for Michah’s place in this verse, making the idea of “first” concrete as “head.”

rishon: first; foremost

רִאשׁוֹן

This related form carries the same head-root into the language of order.

reshit: beginning; first portion

רֵאשִׁית

It shows how the root also names what stands at the beginning of a sequence.

עֻזִּיאֵל

ʿUzzîʾēl

GROWS FROM

עזז

Be strong; strength. The name joins “my strength” with “God.”

Uzziel’s name means “my strength is God.” The sons’ line begins with a name that holds strength and God together, before the verse gives each son his own place.

ALSO GROWS

ʿoz: strength

עֹז

This noun supplies the strength element in Uzziel’s name.

ʿazuz: mighty; strong

עָזוּז

This related form shows the root describing strength as a quality.

THE PATTERN

A larger whole becomes legible as its members are named and given distinct places.

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.

Genesis 5:3 · SDVSeth is named in relation to Adam, preserving both his identity and his place in the family line.

Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.

Matthew 1:2 · SDVThe sequence names each generation and makes the line of descent traceable.

But now God has set the limbs, each one of them, in the body, as he willed.

1 Corinthians 12:18 · SDVEach member has a distinct place within a larger whole, just as each son is given a place in this line.

THE THREAD

Of the sons of Hebron, Jeriah the head, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.

1 Chronicles 23:19 · SDV

The Hebrew uses the same word, ⁨הָרֹאשׁ⁩ (ha-rosh, “the head”), for Jeriah’s “first” place here and Michah’s in the next verse. The repeated word shows the genealogy marking each family branch through an ordered place.

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