What Does 1 Chronicles 4:43 Mean?
And they struck the rest of the Amalekites that had escaped, and settled there unto this day.
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 they smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelt there unto this day.THE KEY
The ending turns a strike against escapees into an enduring settlement in the place they occupied.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a brutal sequence in view: surviving one attack does not make a people safe from another, and those who strike them come to inhabit the place. The settlement remains in the sentence beside the violence that precedes it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Getting away from the first blow guarantees safety.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ
vayyēshvū
GROWS FROM
ישב
yashav
To sit, remain, dwell, or settle.
“settled” in this verse is vayyēshvū. English “dwelt” can sound like an afterthought, but this root carries the sense of settling into a place. The final action makes the violence durable habitation: the escapees are struck, and another people remain there.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The same root holds both sitting down and taking up residence, making the verse’s ending an act of settlement.
moshav: A dwelling or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related word can name the settled place itself, showing how dwelling can become an established home.
וַיַּכּוּ
wayyakkū
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
To strike or smite.
“struck” in this verse is wayyakkū. The escaped remnant is the direct object of this blow. The verb describes another strike against people who have already survived violence, rather than an abstract victory.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This related noun keeps the verb’s physical force visible: the people in the sentence are struck.
hukkah: Was struck.
הֻכָּה
This passive form names the one receiving the blow, sharpening the verse’s focus on the remnant as its target.
שְׁאֵרִית
she'erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha'ar
To remain or be left over.
“rest” in this verse is she'erit. The root names what remains after loss or destruction. Here the remnant is not a promise of safety: these are the people still exposed to another strike.
ALSO GROWS
she'ar: A remainder or residue.
שְׁאָר
This form echoes the verse’s “rest”: the people are described as what remains.
nish'ar: Remains or is left.
נִשְׁאַר
This related verb makes the root’s central idea plain: survival means being left, but it does not say what will happen next.
THE PATTERN
Conquest becomes durable when the defeated people’s land becomes the victor’s dwelling or inheritance.
The Horim also settled in Seir in former days; but the children of Esau drove them out, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.So Joshua seized the whole land, according to every word the LORD had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it to Israel as a possession, according to their portions by their tribes. And the land lay still from war.THE THREAD
The Horim also settled in Seir in former days; but the children of Esau drove them out, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.Deuteronomy states the same sequence more openly: the Horims are destroyed, Esau’s descendants dwell in their place, and Israel is said to do likewise. Both verses use יָשַׁב (yashav, to dwell or settle), so “dwelt there” names the lasting occupation left by the strike.
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