What Does 1 Chronicles 3:5 Mean?

And these were born to him in Jerusalem; Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bathshua, daughter of Ammiel.

1 Chronicles 3:5 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And these were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel:

THE KEY

Wholeness appears twice: in the place where Solomon is born and in the nature carried by his name.

THE MEANING

Here, wholeness is both a place of origin and a nature carried forward. Solomon’s name comes from the root ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m, to be whole), echoed in ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, wholeness) and in Jerusalem’s name. Birth becomes continuity that is legible through names.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that wholeness only waits at the end of a journey: here it is already present at the place of birth and carried in a name.

THE ROOT

שְׁלֹמֹה

Shelomoh

GROWS FROM

שלם

To be whole, complete, or intact; wholeness and peace.

English presents “Solomon” as a name, while Hebrew keeps it tied to the root of wholeness. Beside Jerusalem, the shared sound makes wholeness both the place of birth and the nature compressed in the child’s name.

ALSO GROWS

shalem: Whole, complete

שָׁלֵם

This branch names the wholeness carried in Solomon’s name.

shalom: Wholeness, peace

שָׁלוֹם

The same root carries wholeness into relationship and shared life.

Yerushalayim: Jerusalem; the city of wholeness in this name-reading

יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

Jerusalem is the birthplace in the verse, and its name echoes the same ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m, wholeness) sound-family.

נוֹלְדוּ

nôledû

GROWS FROM

ילד

To bear or beget; to bring forth.

“were born” in this verse is nôledû. The birth-root also forms words for children and generations, so the verse’s birth is not an isolated event. Its language keeps the line of life unfolding through those who come forth.

ALSO GROWS

yeled: Child

יֶלֶד

The child is the person brought forth by the birth named in the verse.

toledot: Generations, begettings

תּוֹלְדוֹת

This branch shows birth becoming a continuing lineage.

moledet: Birthplace, kindred

מוֹלֶדֶת

The birth-root can also name a place of origin and belonging, extending the verse’s link between birth and Jerusalem.

THE PATTERN

A place or source can give birth to an identity that carries its character forward in a name.

And of Zion it is said, This man and that man is born in her; the Most High himself sets her firm.

Psalm 87:5 · SDVBirth in Zion makes the city itself a source of identity and belonging.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; the governance shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the Ages, Prince of Wholeness.

Isaiah 9:6 · SDVThe child’s birth and name are joined, with wholeness carried in the name “Prince of Peace.”

For he is our wholeness, the one who made both one and loosed the middle wall of the fence.

Ephesians 2:14 · SDVWholeness becomes the nature that joins what was separated.

THE THREAD

And these are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem, Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon.

2 Samuel 5:14 · SDV

The parallel verse repeats both Solomon’s name and his birth in Jerusalem. Together, the names let wholeness echo in the place and in the person born there.

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