What Does 1 Chronicles 24:26 Mean?
The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah, Beno.
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
The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi: the sons of Jaaziah; Beno.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “son” is linked to “build,” so this short genealogy becomes a line being built through named relationships.
THE MEANING
Your life is not an isolated point: continuity reaches you through particular people and names, each held in its own place. Even a brief record keeps both the line and the people within it visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that generations are interchangeable, anonymous links is undone here: the line is carried through particular names and relationships.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah: to build or construct. “Son” is commonly linked to this root.
“sons / his son” in this verse is bənê. The Hebrew repeats the ben word-family for “sons” and “his son,” rendered “Beno” in the KJV. Its connection with building lets the genealogy read as a line formed through relationships, not just names set beside one another.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son
בֵּן
The plural form בְּנֵי (bənê) in this verse places each descendant within a relationship.
banah: to build
בָּנָה
This shared root connects a son with the building of a continuing family line.
מְרָרִי
Merari
GROWS FROM
מרר
marar: to be bitter or make bitter.
Merari’s name carries the seed of bitterness, a meaning layer concealed when the name is read only as a label. The root adds texture to the genealogy without defining the character of Merari or his descendants.
ALSO GROWS
Marah: bitter; bitterness
מָרָה
This name shares the bitter-root that gives Merari’s name its semantic texture.
merorim: bitter herbs
מְרֹרִים
The same root names bitterness in a concrete form, showing the sensory reach of the word-family.
יַעֲזִיָּה
Yaʿaziyah
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿazaz: to be strong or grow strong; the name is commonly understood as “Yah strengthens.”
Jaaziah’s name carries strength as part of its nature, and the verse places “his son” directly after it. Strength and descent sit together in this short link of the line.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: strong, mighty
עָז
This adjective expresses the strength carried in Jaaziah’s name.
ʿoz: strength, might
עֹז
The related noun gives strength as a quality the name can carry forward.
THE PATTERN
A genealogy preserves continuity by keeping each link named rather than making descent anonymous.
The sons of Merari were Mahli, and Mushi. And these were the families of the Levites according to their fathers.Now these are the births of Perez. Perez brought forth Hezron.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
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.Both verses use בֵּן (ben, son), a word commonly linked to בָּנָה (banah, build). Genesis makes the transmission visible in a son bearing his father’s likeness; Chronicles compresses that continuing structure into a short chain of named relationships.
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