What Does 1 Chronicles 6:23 Mean?
Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son.
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
Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son,THE KEY
Elkanah, Ebiasaph, and Assir mean “God has acquired,” “my father has gathered,” and “bound one”, so this bare genealogy carries meaning inside its names.
THE MEANING
This line reaches the reader through names that hold acquisition, gathering, and binding within a sequence of sons. The names make even a spare record of descent speak through the meanings carried from one generation to the next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
These names are only labels with no meaning inside them.
THE ROOT
אֶבְיָסָף
’Eḇyāsāp̄
GROWS FROM
אסף
asaph
Gather, collect, bring together.
Ebiasaph is commonly understood as “my father has gathered,” with its final element carrying the root for gathering. That same seed names an ingathering, so a name the KJV leaves opaque still holds the image of collection.
ALSO GROWS
’āsap̄: To gather or collect.
אָסַף
This is the root verb within Ebiasaph’s meaning, making gathering part of the name itself.
’āsîp̄: Ingathering, the harvest collection.
אָסִיף
This related form shows the root gathering things into one place or season.
אָסִיר
’Āsîr
GROWS FROM
אסר
asar
Bind, tie up, restrain.
Assir carries the sense of “bound one,” from the root for binding. English presents the name as a label, while its Hebrew form remains connected to words for binding and prisoners.
ALSO GROWS
’āsar: To bind or tie up.
אָסַר
This is the root verb beneath Assir’s sense of being bound.
’āsûr: Bound, restrained, imprisoned.
אָסוּר
This related form makes explicit the condition held inside the name Assir.
אֶלְקָנָה
’Elqānāh
GROWS FROM
קנה
qanah
Acquire, get, possess; in some contexts, bring into being.
Elkanah joins the name of God with the root for acquiring or possessing, and is commonly understood as “God has acquired.” The name carries acquisition as part of this remembered line, rather than leaving the word’s meaning behind the English spelling.
ALSO GROWS
qānāh: To acquire, get, or possess.
קָנָה
This is the root verb that gives Elkanah its sense of acquisition.
miqneh: Acquired possession or livestock.
מִקְנֶה
This related form shows the root’s movement from acquiring to what is held as a possession.
THE PATTERN
A lineage preserves identity through named succession.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
For the LORD hears and responds to those in want, and does not scorn his bound ones.Assir echoes אָסִיר (’āsîr, a bound person), from אָסַר (’āsar, to bind). Psalm 69:33 uses a form of that same root for “his prisoners,” opening the name’s hidden sense into a verse where the bound are heard and not despised.
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