What Does 1 Chronicles 7:28 Mean?
And their holdings and their settlements were Bethel and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof. Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof.
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 their possessions and habitations were, Beth-el and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof:THE KEY
The Hebrew locates these habitations from sunrise toward sunset, and the name Shechem carries the same word used for an allotted share.
THE MEANING
Belonging takes shape through both what you hold and where you dwell. The named towns give that belonging a real horizon, stretching eastward and westward. Your life, too, occupies actual places where you settle and what you hold there.
THE ROOT
מִזְרָחָה
mizrachah
GROWS FROM
זרח
z-r-ḥ
to rise, shine
The Hebrew word מִזְרָחָה (mizrachah, eastward) keeps the sunrise inside the direction. The verse locates the inhabited span by the place where light rises, rather than using east as a bare compass point.
ALSO GROWS
zarach: rise, shine
זָרַח
This verb names the rising light that gives the eastern direction its image.
mizrach: east, sunrise
מִזְרָח
The directional word itself preserves the connection between east and the sun’s rising.
מַעֲרָבָה
ma'aravah
GROWS FROM
ערב
ʿ-r-b
evening, dusk
The Hebrew word מַעֲרָבָה (ma’aravah, westward) carries the sense of evening and sunset. Paired with the sunrise-rooted eastward, the verse’s east-to-west line spans the day.
ALSO GROWS
erev: evening
עֶרֶב
The evening marks the sun’s setting, the image within the word for west.
ma'arav: west, sunset direction
מַעֲרָב
This form names the direction of the setting sun.
שְׁכֶם
shekhem
GROWS FROM
שכם
š-k-m
shoulder; also a side or allotted portion
Shechem’s Hebrew name שְׁכֶם (shekhem, shoulder) is also used for an allotted portion, as in ‘one portion’ in Genesis 48:22. The town’s name therefore carries both a geographic sense and the language of a share.
ALSO GROWS
shekhem: shoulder, upper back
שְׁכֶם
This is the literal sense behind the town name.
shekhem echad: one portion
שְׁכֶם אֶחָד
The same word describes an allotted share in Genesis 48:22, joining the place name to the language of land and portion.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to land becomes visible through its directions, bounds, and named places.
And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward.And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they took hold of it, and settled in it.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.THE THREAD
Moreover I have given to you one shoulder above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.The Hebrew word translated ‘portion’ there is שְׁכֶם (shekhem, shoulder or portion), the same word as the place name Shechem here. One word connects a named place with an allotted share of land.
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