What Does 1 Chronicles 6:53 Mean?
Zadok his son, and Ahimaaz 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
Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.THE KEY
This two-name handoff makes alignment part of what one generation builds into the next.
THE MEANING
Your life belongs to a chain of receiving and carrying forward. The word for “son” echoes the language of building, while Zadok’s name carries the sense of alignment; the line holds together what is built and what is handed on.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a life is self-made and sealed off from what came before gives way here: your present is part of a line, not a standalone beginning.
THE ROOT
בֵּן
ben
GROWS FROM
בנה
build, establish
The Hebrew word בֵּן (ben, “son”) is traditionally linked with בָּנָה (banah, “build”). That link lets this genealogy read as more than a list: each generation belongs to what is being built and carried forward.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build
בָּנָה
It makes the son-language in this verse resonate with the building of a continuing line.
binyan: building, structure
בִּנְיָן
A structure takes shape through connected parts, as this line connects one generation to the next.
צָדוֹק
Ṣādōq
GROWS FROM
צדק
be right, just, aligned
Zadok’s name carries the root of rightness and alignment. The genealogy places that name inside a line of succession, letting alignment echo beyond one person.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: rightness, alignment
צֶדֶק
This is the quality carried in Zadok’s name, now set within the line named by the verse.
tsaddiq: one who is right or aligned
צַדִּיק
The related form shows the root as a quality embodied in a person.
THE PATTERN
A life is carried forward through named generations, each becoming part of the line that follows.
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
And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.Behind “obtain children” is וְאִבָּנֶה (ve’ibaneh, “I may be built”), from בָּנָה (banah, “build”). It opens the word “son” into a building image while leaving the painful arrangement in this verse fully visible.
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