What Does 1 Chronicles 6:17 Mean?
And these were the names of the sons of Gershom, Libni, and Shimei.
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 these be the names of the sons of Gershom; Libni, and Shimei.THE KEY
The list is not only a record of descent: its names hold sojourning, whiteness, and hearing together.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks through names that carry meaning across a family line: sojourning in Gershom, whiteness in Libni, and hearing in Shimei. Identity holds more than what is visible; it also carries the meanings compressed into what a person is called.
THE ROOT
גֵּרְשֹׁם
Gēršōm
GROWS FROM
גּוּר
gūr
To sojourn or dwell as an outsider.
Gershom is commonly read as ger sham, “a sojourner there,” and the root גּוּר (gūr) means to sojourn. The name holds displacement inside identity, carrying the condition of living as an outsider within a family line.
ALSO GROWS
ger: Sojourner or resident alien.
גֵּר
This is the person formed by the root’s sense of dwelling among others as an outsider.
megurim: Sojournings or temporary dwellings.
מְגוּרִים
The plural form makes sojourning into an ongoing condition, giving depth to the movement held in Gershom’s name.
לִבְנִי
Libnī
GROWS FROM
לָבַן
lāvan
To be white or become white.
Libni carries the root of whiteness in its name, a shade that English leaves hidden. The same root links a person’s name with the color white and the brightness associated with the moon.
ALSO GROWS
lāvan: White.
לָבָן
This is the direct color-word behind the meaning commonly given for Libni.
levānāh: The moon, literally associated with “the white one.”
לְבָנָה
This familiar image carries the root’s whiteness into the night sky.
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿī
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
shāmaʿ
To hear or listen.
Shimei is tied to the root of hearing, so the name carries listening as part of the line’s identity. That same root names both the act of hearing and what arrives as a report to be heard.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the action at the root of Shimei’s name.
shemuʿāh: A report or piece of news; that which is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch turns hearing into something received and carried onward, echoing the way names travel through a lineage.
THE PATTERN
A name can hold a defining meaning and carry it beyond the moment it is given.
And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom, the sojourner, for he said, A sojourner I have been in a foreign land.And he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, the one who struggles with God, for you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom, the sojourner, for he said, A sojourner I have been in a foreign land.Exodus connects the name Gershom with being a stranger in a strange land; that Gershom is Moses’s son, distinct from the Levite named in this genealogy. The shared name lets the root of sojourning surface inside an otherwise bare family list.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us