What Does 1 Chronicles 3:10 Mean?
And Solomon's son was Rehoboam, Abia his son, Asa his son, and Jehoshaphat his son.
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
And Solomon’s son was Rehoboam, Abia his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,THE KEY
The repeated “his son” makes succession sound like building: Hebrew links בֵּן (ben, son) with בָּנָה (banah, build).
THE MEANING
The verse shows inheritance arriving through one named life after another. Rehoboam’s name carries the language of widening, placing an image of expansion at the entrance to this line without claiming that every generation fulfills it.
THE ROOT
בְּנוֹ
bənō
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
to build or construct
English “son” can sound like only a label of descent, while בֵּן (ben, son) is linked with בָּנָה (banah, build). Each בְּנוֹ (bənō, his son) makes the line read as something built one generation at a time.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build
בָּנָה
It links the word for son with the image of a line being built forward.
binyan: building or structure
בִּנְיָן
It extends the building image from one son to the structure formed by a whole lineage.
רְחַבְעָם
Reḥavʿam
GROWS FROM
רחב
raḥav
to be wide or spacious; to enlarge
“Rehoboam” in this verse is Reḥavʿam. The name joins רָחַב (raḥav, widen) with עַם (ʿam, people), and is commonly understood as “the people is enlarged.” It places the language of spaciousness at the head of the genealogy, while the verse simply records the line continuing.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: wide or spacious
רָחַב
This is the root carried in Rehoboam’s name.
merḥav: open space or broad place
מֶרְחָב
It shows how the root can describe room to expand.
יְהוֹשָׁפָט
Yehoshafat
GROWS FROM
שפט
shafat
to judge or render a decision
Jehoshaphat’s name is commonly read as “YHWH judges,” carrying the שפט (shafat, judge) root. The final name places judgment within the line’s inherited naming.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: to judge or decide a case
שָׁפַט
This is the verb at the root of Jehoshaphat’s name.
mishpat: judgment or justice
מִשְׁפָּט
It shows the root extending from judging to the decision or order that follows.
THE PATTERN
A line continues as one named life carries its inheritance into the next.
This is the book of the births of Adam. In the day that God created the ground-being, in the likeness of God he made him.So that the generation that follows might know them, the children yet to be born, who will rise and recount them to their children.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Rehoboam’s name carries רחב (raḥav, widen); the psalm uses the same root in מֶרְחָב (merḥav, a large or open place). That shared root opens a spatial layer beneath a genealogy whose first name bears the language of enlargement.
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