What Does 1 Chronicles 4:7 Mean?

And the sons of Helah were Zereth, Jezoar, and Ethnan.

1 Chronicles 4:7 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the sons of Helah were, Zereth, and Jezoar, and Ethnan.

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for “sons” carries the seed of “building”: this spare list presents a family line as something built through named lives.

THE MEANING

Your life, too, is carried through particular people, some named and some no longer remembered. This verse keeps three names in view, showing a line of life person by person.

THE ROOT

בְּנֵי

bənê

GROWS FROM

בנה

banah

Build; establish.

The word for “sons” is traditionally linked to ⁨בנה⁩ (banah), “build.” The names here make that continuity concrete: a line takes shape through particular lives, each retained by name.

ALSO GROWS

ben: Son.

בֵּן

This related form names the person who carries a family line forward.

banah: To build.

בָּנָה

It makes visible the building sense carried beneath the word for “sons”.

binyan: Building; structure.

בִּנְיָן

This form shows the same root taking shape as a built structure.

THE PATTERN

A line of life becomes visible through names carried from one generation to another.

This is the book of the births of Adam. In the day that God created the ground-being, in the likeness of God he made him.

Genesis 5:1 · SDVThe generations of Adam are recorded as a continuing line, preserving where lives begin.

The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThis opening places a named life within a line reaching back through named ancestors.

And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years old, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, who was the son of Heli.

Luke 3:23 · SDVThe line is carried forward through named relationships, making ancestry visible one person at a time.

THE THREAD

The sons of Judah were Pharez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur, and Shobal.

1 Chronicles 4:1 · SDV

The same Hebrew word ⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (bənê), “sons,” opens this verse and the line in 4:7; both trace back to ⁨בנה⁩ (banah), “build.” The repeated word lets the genealogy read as continuity taking shape through named lives.

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