What Does 1 Chronicles 4:38 Mean?
These, mentioned by their names, were the lifted ones among their families, and the house of their fathers increased greatly.
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
These mentioned by their names were princes in their families: and the house of their fathers increased greatly.THE KEY
The household multiplies without dissolving the distinct nature carried by each name.
THE MEANING
A name holds a person’s nature in view even as the father’s house grows beyond measure. You remain particular within the wider life you share with others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging to a growing whole makes each person indistinguishable.
THE ROOT
וַיִּרְבּוּ
vayirbu
GROWS FROM
רבה
rabah
be many, become numerous, increase
“increased” in this verse is vayirbu. This root carries both being many and becoming many: abundance is movement, not just a fixed state. The line pictures a household growing beyond its former measure.
ALSO GROWS
rav: many, great
רַב
The same root links increase with becoming many, so the household’s growth is an expansion in number.
hirbah: increase, make numerous
הִרְבָּה
This form makes the root’s movement explicit: what is already living becomes more abundant.
נְשִׂיאִים
nesi'im
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
lift, carry, bear
“the lifted ones” in this verse is nesi'im. The Hebrew title for “princes” comes from the language of being lifted or carrying. Here, named leaders and a growing household sit together, joining elevation with the weight of family continuity.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: lift, carry, bear
נָשָׂא
This verb shares the root of the title, keeping the idea of carrying within the idea of leadership.
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
A burden is something carried, showing the responsibility beneath the elevated title.
THE PATTERN
Life’s increase expands a household or community beyond its initial bounds.
And I will make you bear fruit exceedingly, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you.And the children of Israel bore fruit and swarmed and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great crowd of the priests heard and responded by leaning their weight.THE THREAD
And God blessed them, saying, "Bear fruit and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply upon the earth."Both verses use רבה (rabah, increase): Genesis names multiplication in living creatures, and Chronicles uses the same root for a father’s house growing beyond measure. The root carries abundance from the filling of creation into the continuity of a family.
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