What Does 1 Chronicles 7:35 Mean?
And the sons of his brother Helem were Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Amal.
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 the sons of his brother Helem; Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Amal.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “sons” carries the root “build,” so this genealogy is a family line taking shape through named lives.
THE MEANING
This verse holds continuity in four names: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal are kin within a living line. Amal also echoes the Hebrew word for toil, though the verse gives no biography for him.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
benei
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build, establish
The Hebrew word for “sons” belongs to the root בנה (banah, build), so the names are not only counted; they carry a line forward. Genesis 16:2 uses that same root for being built up through children, though the KJV renders the phrase “obtain children.”
ALSO GROWS
ben: son
בֵּן
The word names a child as part of the family line that continues.
banah: to build, establish
בָּנָה
This verb lets the list of sons sound like a family structure taking shape through successive generations.
עָמָל
ʿāmāl
GROWS FROM
עמל
ʿ-m-l
to toil, labor; toil or trouble
Amal has the same consonants as the Hebrew word for toil. The name lets labor resonate within the family list, while the verse leaves the person’s story unstated.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmal: to labor, toil
עָמַל
The verb shares the name’s root and gives it the sound of an action carried through a life.
ʿāmāl: toil, labor, trouble
עָמָל
The noun is also the form of Amal’s name, bringing the language of labor into the lineage.
THE PATTERN
A family line is carried forward through particular people whose names make continuity visible.
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.Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.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.The phrase rendered “obtain children” uses the root בנה (banah, build); its Hebrew sense is being built up through her. That root joins this list of sons to the image of a family taking form through the children named within it.
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