What Does 1 Chronicles 7:17 Mean?

And the son of Ulam was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

1 Chronicles 7:17 · 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

And the sons of Ulam; Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

THE KEY

A name tied to forgetting becomes the name this genealogy carries forward through generations.

THE MEANING

Bedan is named in relation to Ulam, and the line is traced back through Gilead and Machir to Manasseh. This verse makes lineage a form of remembrance: a name linked to forgetting remains attached to the life that comes after it.

THE ROOT

מְנַשֶּׁה

Mənashsheh

GROWS FROM

נשה

n-sh-h

Forget; in its causative sense, cause to forget.

Manasseh is linked to the verb Joseph uses when he says God has made him forget his hardship (Genesis 41:51). Here, the genealogy preserves that name and the generations connected to it: the language of forgetting sits inside an act of remembrance.

ALSO GROWS

nāšāh: To forget.

נָשָׁה

This verb supplies the meaning behind the name Manasseh.

nəšiyyāh: Forgetfulness.

נְשִׁיָּה

Psalm 88:12 uses this word for the “land of forgetfulness”; here the related name is kept in a family line.

בְּנֵי

bənê

GROWS FROM

בנה

b-n-h

Build; establish.

The Hebrew word for “sons” is traditionally connected with ⁨בנה⁩, “to build.” That connection lets the genealogy read as a family structure carried forward through named relations.

ALSO GROWS

ben: Son.

בֵּן

This is the singular form behind ⁨בְּנֵי⁩, “sons of,” in the verse.

banah: To build.

בָּנָה

The shared root gives the line of sons the added sense of a structure built across generations.

THE PATTERN

Genealogy preserves identity by naming people within the generations that carry them.

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 verse frames human identity through a named line of generations.

Now these are the births of Perez. Perez brought forth Hezron.

Ruth 4:18 · SDVThe family line is kept visible by naming the links from one generation to the next.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThe verse locates a name within the generations and relationships that precede it.

THE THREAD

And Joseph called the name of the firstborn the Forget-Maker, Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.

Genesis 41:51 · SDV

Genesis ties Manasseh’s name to ⁨נָשָׁה⁩ (nāšāh), “to forget.” First Chronicles carries that same name into a genealogy, where the line remains remembered through the generations named after him.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us