What Does 1 Chronicles 4:20 Mean?
And the sons of Shimon were Amnon, and Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi were Zoheth, and Benzoheth.
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 the sons of Shimon were, Amnon, and Rinnah, Ben-hanan, and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi were, Zoheth, and Ben-zoheth.THE KEY
This family line carries more than names: it carries echoes of firmness, a ringing cry, and favor.
THE MEANING
You meet this passage through named relationships: Shimon’s sons are named, then Ishi’s, and each name is held within a family line. Amnon echoes firmness, Rinnah a ringing cry, and Ben-hanan names a son of Hanan, whose name carries favor. The verse holds particular names and belonging together.
THE ROOT
חָנָן
ḥānān
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or deal graciously.
Ben-hanan means “son of Hanan,” and Hanan carries the root of showing favor. The name embeds favor within a relationship, so the line preserves a meaning as well as a person.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor or acceptance.
חֵן
This noun from the same root makes the meaning carried by Hanan visible.
ḥannūn: One who shows favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form turns the root’s meaning into a quality expressed toward someone.
רִנָּה
rinnāh
GROWS FROM
רנן
r-n-n
To ring out, cry aloud, or sing.
Rinnah carries the sound of a voice raised aloud. The name’s root keeps a ringing cry within this otherwise spare list of descendants.
ALSO GROWS
rānan: To utter a ringing cry, often joyful.
רָנַן
This verb reveals the audible action beneath Rinnah’s name.
renānāh: A joyful cry or song.
רְנָנָה
This related noun shows how the same root can name the sound itself.
אֲמְנוֹן
ʾAmnōn
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, steady, or reliable.
Amnon is commonly connected with the root of firmness and reliability. That root also lives in words for trust and in “Amen,” which affirms what is firm; the name carries that resonance into the family line.
ALSO GROWS
ʾĕmūnāh: Firmness, trust, or steadiness.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows the root’s movement from what is firm to trust that leans on it.
ʾāmēn: A spoken affirmation of what is firm or true.
אָמֵן
The familiar word preserves the root’s sense of firmness in a spoken response.
THE PATTERN
Names are carried through family bonds, making a line of descent visible one person at a time.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.THE THREAD
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.Hanan in Ben-hanan carries the root חנן (ḥ-n-n), meaning to show favor; “grace” here is חֵן (ḥēn), from that same root. The name in the family line echoes the same favor named in Noah’s verse.
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