What Does 1 Chronicles 26:3 Mean?
Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh.
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
Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh.THE KEY
The roster reads like a hidden sentence: concealment, YHWH’s favor, and eyes turned toward God.
THE MEANING
The names hold concealment beside favor from YHWH and eyes directed toward God. Elam is traditionally linked with “hidden,” though that name derivation is uncertain; Jehohanan means “YHWH has shown favor,” and Elioenai means “my eyes are toward God.”
THE ROOT
אֶלְיְהוֹעֵינַי
ʾElyəhōʿênay
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿ-y-n
Eye; in the name, עֵינַי (ʿênay) means “my eyes.”
Elioenai means “my eyes are toward YHWH,” making the name a direction of attention rather than a mere label. The verse’s final name echoes the language of Psalm 25:15, where the speaker’s eyes are likewise toward the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: An eye; also used for a spring or source.
עַיִן
The name’s “my eyes” grows from this word, giving its final phrase a concrete image of sight and orientation.
ʿênayim: Eyes, the dual form of “eye.”
עֵינַיִם
This plural form makes visible the word-family behind עֵינַי (ʿênay, “my eyes”) in Elioenai.
יְהוֹחָנָן
Yəhōḥānān
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor.
Jehohanan carries the statement “YHWH has shown favor” inside a personal name. The root also appears in words for favor, so the name compresses the act of favoring into the person’s identity.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor or gracious acceptance.
חֵן
This noun makes explicit the favor carried by the חנן (ḥ-n-n) root in Jehohanan.
ḥannûn: One who shows favor.
חַנּוּן
This word describes the quality named in Jehohanan: YHWH as the one who gives favor.
עֵילָם
ʿÊlām
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
To hide or conceal; the connection between this root and the personal name is traditional but uncertain.
Elam is commonly associated with concealment, though the name’s derivation is not certain. Read beside Jehohanan and Elioenai, it gives the roster a possible movement from what is hidden to favor and a gaze turned toward God.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālam: To hide or conceal.
עָלַם
This is the verb traditionally associated with the name Elam and its sense of hiddenness.
ʿōlām: An age or the ages.
עוֹלָם
This word shares the consonants עלם; its association with hidden or distant duration is traditional, while the etymology is debated.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets names carry a nature-bearing claim about the person or God named.
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.Look, the virgin will carry in her womb, and will bring forth a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, God with us.THE THREAD
My eyes are always toward the LORD, for he brings my feet out of the net.Elioenai means “my eyes are toward YHWH,” and Psalm 25:15 uses the same eye-word, עֵינַי (ʿênay, “my eyes”), with that same direction. The roster’s final name opens into a living line of attention and trust.
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