What Does 1 Chronicles 25:5 Mean?
All these were the sons of Heman, the king's beholder in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
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
All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.THE KEY
The horn raised here is strength made visible, and that strength is named alongside a life God gives.
THE MEANING
Here, sight is bound to the words of God, strength is raised, and Heman’s household is named as God’s gift. The verse speaks now of a life in which what is received can also become visible as strength.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strength or fruitfulness must be self-made: Heman’s household is given by God, and the horn is lifted.
THE ROOT
קָרֶן
qeren
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ן
Horn; by extension, strength expressed outwardly.
The horn is strength in visible form; the same consonants appear in qaran, “to send out rays.” The raised horn can carry both strength and its outward expression, dimensions English leaves in separate words.
ALSO GROWS
qarnayim: Horns
קַרְנַיִם
The plural keeps the concrete image of something projecting outward.
qaran: Radiate or send out rays
קָרַן
This related form links the horn’s projecting shape with visible radiance.
הֵימָן
Heman
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ן
To be firm, steady, or reliable.
Heman’s name is linked with aman, “to be firm, steady.” Beside the description “seer in the words of God,” that name carries steadiness as part of the identity this verse names.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust; leaning your full weight on
אֱמוּנָה
It carries the root’s sense of steadiness into trust.
ne’eman: Reliable, steady
נֶאֱמָן
This form names the quality of being firm and dependable, echoing the nature carried in Heman’s name.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is natan. The verse explicitly says God gives Heman his household. The related word for “gift” keeps receiving at the center of the statement.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place
נָתַן
This is the verb the verse uses for what God does for Heman.
mattan: Gift
מַתָּן
This related noun makes the act of giving concrete: what is received is a gift.
THE PATTERN
The raised horn is an image of strength made visible.
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart leaps in the LORD, my horn is lifted high in the LORD; my mouth is widened over my enemies, because I rejoice in your deliverance.For you are the adornment of their strength; in your favor our horn is lifted.And has raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the house of his servant David;THE THREAD
And has raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the house of his servant David;Luke carries forward the same horn image and joins it to deliverance. That connection opens the phrase here: the horn is strength lifted into view, not merely a physical object.
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