What Does 1 Chronicles 25:17 Mean?
The tenth to Shimei, he, his sons, and his brothers, were twelve.
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 tenth to Shimei, he, his sons, and his brethren, were twelve:THE KEY
The name Shimei carries the Hebrew root שמע, “to hear,” inside this roster of singers.
THE MEANING
Shimei’s place in the shared work includes his sons and brothers: twelve together. His name carries the root for hearing, so this roster holds an echo of listening as well as number.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿi
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
English preserves Shimei as a name but hides its connection to שמע, “to hear.” In a roster of singers, the name quietly carries an echo of listening within the ordered count.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen.
שָׁמַע
This verb shares the name’s root and makes its connection to hearing clear.
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This imperative shows hearing as receptive response, adding depth to the root carried in Shimei’s name.
shemuʿah: A report, news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root also names what is heard and received, extending the link from listening to a message.
THE PATTERN
Praise is carried by many voices whose distinct places form one shared offering.
And they let the lots fall, watch against watch, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the student.Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.THE THREAD
And God heard and responded to their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.Shimei’s name carries שמע, the root of “hear”; this verse uses that same root for God hearing the groaning. The name opens the roster onto a wider scriptural pattern in which hearing receives another’s cry.
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