What Does 1 Chronicles 4:26 Mean?
And the sons of Mishma were Hamuel his son, Zaccur his son, and Shimei 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 the sons of Mishma; Hamuel his son, Zacchur his son, Shimei his son.THE KEY
Mishma, Zacchur, and Shimei make this family line sound like hearing, remembrance, and hearing again.
THE MEANING
Mishma and Shimei carry the language of hearing, while Zacchur carries remembrance. The names let continuity speak as hearing, remembrance, and hearing again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the assumption that a genealogy is only a list of who follows whom: these names also carry hearing and remembrance forward.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁמָע
mishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, listen
English presents Mishma and Shimei as separate names, but both grow from שמע (sh-m-ʿ), “to hear,” so hearing frames the line. Between them, Zacchur grows from זכר (z-k-r), “to remember,” giving the names a movement from hearing to remembrance and back.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: to hear, listen
שָׁמַע
This verb is the seed inside Mishma and the repeated root in Shimei, placing hearing at both ends of the line.
shemuʿah: a report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is something heard and passed along, extending the root from hearing to what hearing carries forward.
זַכּוּר
zakkur
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
to remember, call to mind
Zacchur carries the root זכר (z-k-r), “to remember”; זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron, “memorial”) shows how the same seed can take durable form. In this family line, the remembered name sits between two names from שמע (sh-m-ʿ), “to hear,” so remembrance is held inside a repeated sound of hearing.
ALSO GROWS
zakar: to remember, call to mind
זָכַר
The verb makes explicit the remembrance carried in Zacchur’s name.
zikkaron: remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial gives remembrance a lasting form, echoing how a name preserves meaning within a family line.
THE PATTERN
What is heard can be carried forward in remembrance beyond the immediate moment.
And God heard and responded to their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.And said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of compassion have been remembered before the eyes of God.THE THREAD
And God heard and responded to their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.The names carry שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, “hear”) and זָכַר (zakar, “remember”); this verse joins those same roots in one sentence. What the genealogy compresses into names, Exodus speaks as a sequence: God hears groaning and remembers covenant.
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