What Does 1 Chronicles 7:22 Mean?
And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.
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 Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.THE KEY
The name that carries fruitfulness does not prevent its bearer from mourning for many days.
THE MEANING
You can carry fruitfulness and still grieve; this verse lets both realities stand together. Grief can last many days, and comfort comes through people who come to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that fruitfulness protects you from grief, or that grief should end quickly, is undone here: Ephraim mourns for many days, and his brothers come to comfort him.
THE ROOT
לְנַחֲמוֹ
le-naḥămô
GROWS FROM
נחם
n-ḥ-m
To comfort or console; in other forms, to relent or regret.
The form here means “to comfort”; elsewhere the same root can mean “relent” or “regret,” so its range includes response to pain and a change of course. Here comfort is something the brothers actively bring to the mourner.
ALSO GROWS
neḥāmāh: Consolation, comfort
נֶחָמָה
The noun names comfort as a response offered into grief.
niḥam: Relented, regretted
נִחַם
This form shows that the root can also describe a change in response or course.
וַיִּתְאַבֵּל
vayyitʾabbēl
GROWS FROM
אבל
ʾ-b-l
To mourn or grieve.
“mourned” in this verse is vayyitʾabbēl. The verse places this verb beside “many days,” giving grief duration rather than a deadline. The root family links the act of mourning with the state of mourning and the person who mourns.
ALSO GROWS
ʾēvel: Mourning
אֵבֶל
The noun names the condition that Ephraim’s verb describes.
ʾāvel: Mourner
אָבֵל
The same root can name the person carrying the grief.
אֶפְרַיִם
Efrayim
GROWS FROM
פרה
p-r-h
To bear fruit, to be fruitful.
Ephraim’s name is linked to fruitfulness, yet here he is a father mourning for many days. Fruitfulness does not shield a person from grief; both belong in the same life.
ALSO GROWS
pārāh: To be fruitful
פָּרָה
This verb carries the fruitfulness associated with Ephraim’s name.
hifranî: He made me fruitful
הִפְרַנִי
In Genesis 41:52, Joseph explains Ephraim’s name through fruitfulness received in the land of his affliction.
THE PATTERN
In grief, comfort takes the form of people coming near and sharing the mourner’s burden.
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this harm that had come upon him, they came each from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to shake their heads with him and to comfort him.And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.THE THREAD
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down to the grave, to my son, mourning. So his father wept for him.The same Hebrew root נחם (naḥam, to comfort or console) appears in both accounts: people come to comfort a grieving father. Jacob refuses comfort, showing that it can be offered without grief being instantly resolved.
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