What Does 1 Chronicles 25:3 Mean?
Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun; Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a lyre, to give thanks and to praise the LORD.
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
Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun; Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the LORD.THE KEY
Jeduthun’s name is traditionally understood as “Praising,” and his household’s harp-led prophecy gives that name its living expression in thanks and praise.
THE MEANING
Revelation can meet you through music: here the harp and prophetic voice join in an act of thanks and praise. Many voices move together under a guiding hand, so the expression is both shared and ordered. Jeduthun’s name, traditionally understood as “Praising,” echoes the work his household carries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prophecy must be spoken as plain words and that music is only decoration: this verse names harp-playing as prophetic, directed toward thanks and praise.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹדוֹת
lehodot
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
To acknowledge, give thanks, or praise.
“to give thanks” in this verse is lehodot. The name יְדוּתוּן (Yeduthun, “praising”) is traditionally linked to this same root. The verse brings the name, the harp, and the purpose together: the household’s prophetic music gives thanks.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving; an expression of thanks.
תּוֹדָה
This noun from the same root shows that giving thanks can be voiced as an act, as it is in the music here.
hodot: To give thanks or acknowledge.
הוֹדוֹת
This form echoes the verse’s “give thanks” and makes the song an acknowledgment, not just a sound.
וְהַלֵּל
vehallel
GROWS FROM
הלל
h-l-l
To praise, exult, or boast.
“to praise” in this verse is vehallel. This verb belongs to the root in הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (halelu-Yah, “praise Yah”). The verse’s praise is directed toward the LORD, carried by the harp alongside thanksgiving.
ALSO GROWS
halelu: Praise! addressed to a group.
הַלְלוּ
The plural form fits the many voices gathered under Jeduthun’s direction.
halelu-Yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
This familiar call joins the root of “praise” to the name being praised.
הַנִּבָּא
hannibba
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
To speak or utter as a prophet.
“prophesied” in this verse is hannibba. This root also names the prophet and the prophetic utterance. By joining the verb to a harp, the verse presents music as part of prophetic expression rather than as background to it.
ALSO GROWS
navi: Prophet.
נָבִיא
The person and the act of prophesying belong to the same word family.
nevuah: Prophecy; prophetic utterance.
נְבוּאָה
This noun names the kind of expression the verse associates with the harp.
THE PATTERN
Shared music carries a community’s spiritual voice in praise and expression before God.
After that you will come to the hill of God, where the standing post of the Philistines is. When you come there to the city, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a harp, a hand drum, a pipe, and a lyre before them, and they will prophesy.Answer the LORD with extended hands; make music to our God upon the lyre.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.THE THREAD
Extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.Both verses use ידה (y-d-h, “acknowledge” or “give thanks”) in “give thanks”: 1 Chronicles places that acknowledgment inside prophetic music, while Psalm 107 names God’s goodness alongside it. The same root is traditionally connected to Jeduthun’s name, tying identity, music, and gratitude together.
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