What Does 1 Chronicles 24:21 Mean?
Concerning Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, the first was Isshiah.
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
Concerning Rehabiah: of the sons of Rehabiah, the first was Isshiah.THE KEY
The word rendered “first” is literally “the head,” and Rehabiah’s name carries widening: the line begins as spaciousness taking shape.
THE MEANING
This verse gives continuity a shape: Rehabiah’s sons form a line, and Isshiah stands at its head. Rehabiah’s name carries the image of widening by Yah, placing this line within a name of spaciousness.
THE ROOT
הָרֹאשׁ
hā-rōʾš
GROWS FROM
ר־א־שׁ
resh
Head, top; by extension, chief or first.
English makes “first” sound like a position in a count, while the Hebrew word is “the head.” In this genealogy, Isshiah is named as the head of the line, revealing a position as well as an order.
ALSO GROWS
rōʾš: Head; chief or leader.
רֹאשׁ
The shared word shows that the “first” son occupies the head position in the line.
rēʾšît: Beginning; first part.
רֵאשִׁית
This branch carries the same head-root into the idea of a beginning, linking position with what comes first.
רְחַבְיָהוּ
Reḥavyāhû
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
resh
To become broad or make spacious.
Rehabiah joins the widening root רחב with Yah’s name, carrying the sense “Yah has made wide.” The line’s head is thus named within a family name that holds spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥav: To be broad; to make room.
רָחַב
This is the seed carried in Rehabiah’s name: widening or room-making.
merḥāb: A broad place; open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch gives the root’s widening a place to inhabit, echoing the spaciousness contained in the father’s name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses head-language for a leading or defining position in a line, a structure, or a body.
Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, and the lifted ones of the fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the city of David, which is Zion.The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might be first.THE THREAD
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.The Hebrew word rendered “first” here is הָרֹאשׁ (hā-rōʾš), “the head.” Psalm 118 uses the same head-word for the stone at the corner, so Isshiah’s place in the line carries the language of position, not just counting.
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