What Does 1 Chronicles 7:10 Mean?

The sons also of Jediael were Bilhan. And the sons of Bilhan were Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar.

1 Chronicles 7:10 · 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

The sons also of Jediael; Bilhan: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar.

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for “sons” carries the root of “building”: this family line is not merely counted but built, name by name.

THE MEANING

The verse holds each name in a chain of relation: Jediael, Bilhan, then the sons named after him. A life is not sealed off from the lives around it; each name extends the shape of a family.

THE ROOT

בְּנֵי

bənê

GROWS FROM

בנה

to build, establish

Hebrew links ⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (bənê, “sons”) with ⁨בנה⁩ (bānāh, “build”). That connection lets the genealogy read as a family being built across named generations, not merely a list.

ALSO GROWS

bānāh: to build; he built

בָּנָה

It carries the same three root consonants, making the building image beneath “sons” visible.

bōneh: builder; one who builds

בֹּנֶה

This active form from the same root lets the sons appear as part of the ongoing building of a family line.

יְדִיעֲאֵל

Yəḏîaʿēl

GROWS FROM

ידע

to know, perceive

Jediael joins the root of knowing to ⁨אֵל⁩ (ʾEl, “God”) in a personal name. At the head of a list of particular people, the name makes this genealogy feel like more than an anonymous count.

ALSO GROWS

yādaʿ: to know, recognize

יָדַע

This verb carries the same consonants as the name’s knowledge-root.

yōḏēaʿ: one who knows; knowing

יֹדֵעַ

This form keeps the same root, placing the act of knowing alongside Jediael’s name.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents a household as something built through the lives and bonds that carry it forward.

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.

Genesis 16:2 · SDVSarah describes children as the means by which her life is built, exposing the same family-building image beneath this list of sons.

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.

Psalm 127:1 · SDVThe household is pictured as something built, while its keeping reaches beyond the builder.

You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.

1 Peter 2:5 · SDVThe image widens from household to community, with people becoming the living material of a house.

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.

Genesis 16:2 · SDV

“Obtain children” renders ⁨אִבָּנֶה⁩ (ʾibbāneh, “I may be built”), a form of ⁨בנה⁩ (bānāh, “build”), the root associated with ⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (bənê, “sons”) here. The shared root makes the genealogy’s naming act feel architectural: descendants are how a family line is built.

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