What Does 1 Chronicles 4:21 Mean?
The sons of Shelah the son of Judah were Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of fine-linen laborers, of the house of Ashbea,
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
The sons of Shelah the son of Judah were, Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea,THE KEY
The verse names fine-linen making with a word for work and service, so a household’s craft becomes part of how it serves.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a family line beside its craft: a household is known by the work it carries. Making fine linen is shared labor, gathered into the life of the house.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹדַת
avodat
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
To work or serve.
“wrought” in this verse is avodat. The Hebrew phrase calls linen-making the house’s work, using the root that also means to serve. The craft is more than an output: it is a form of service carried by a household.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To work, serve, or till.
עָבַד
This verb shows the shared root’s range: labor can be service, as well as the work of cultivating or making.
eved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This related noun names one who serves, tying the household’s work to people who carry it out.
THE PATTERN
Work becomes service when skill is carried into a shared purpose.
He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the carver, and of the designer, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any work, and of those who devise designs.As each has received a gift, serve it to one another as good stewards of the various favor of God.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the ground-being and set him down in the garden of Eden, to till it and keep it.The Hebrew verb עבד (avad, work or serve) appears in both verses: here it describes the work associated with linen, and there it describes tending the garden. The shared root joins making and tending as forms of service.
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