What Does 1 Chronicles 5:17 Mean?

All these were reckoned by genealogies in the days of Jotham, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, king of Israel.

1 Chronicles 5:17 · 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

All these were reckoned by genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb counts these people by tracing their place in a family line, preserving relationship as well as number.

THE MEANING

Here, being counted means being located within a lineage that reaches beyond the present generation. The verse keeps that record alongside Judah and Israel, so identity remains traceable across their separate centers of rule. Your place in a story can be carried through generations and remembered in the lives that came before you.

THE ROOT

הִתְיַחְשׂוּ

hityachsu

GROWS FROM

יחשׂ

y-ḥ-s

To enroll or trace a person in a genealogy.

“reckoned by genealogies” in this verse is hityachsu. English “reckoned” can sound like a tally, but this Hebrew form speaks of genealogical enrollment: these people are counted by being placed in a line of descent. The noun yachas (⁨יַחַשׂ⁩, genealogy) shares that seed, so the word holds number and relationship together.

ALSO GROWS

yachas: Genealogy; lineage.

יַחַשׂ

The noun names the family line that the verse’s verb uses to locate each person; the record is relational as well as numerical.

hamityachsim: Those enrolled by genealogy.

הַמִּתְיַחְשִׂים

This form names the people whose genealogical standing is checked, showing that the root describes both the act of registration and those positioned within the record.

THE PATTERN

Scripture carries belonging through named generations, preserving a person’s place as part of a lineage.

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 are gathered into a named record, placing each life within a line that begins before it.

These sought their register among those who were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore were they, as soiled, put from the priesthood.

Ezra 2:62 · SDVA person’s place in the community is traced through a genealogical register.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThe opening names a life through its connection to earlier generations.

THE THREAD

So all Israel were counted by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were laid bare and taken to Babylon for their breaking trust.

1 Chronicles 9:1 · SDV

The same Hebrew root, ⁨יחשׂ⁩ (y-ḥ-s, to register by genealogy), appears in “reckoned by genealogies.” Here the genealogical count is paired with a written register, showing a lineage that remains legible even when people are displaced.

This reading is from Selah Verse.

You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.

Get Selah Verse

A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us