What Does 1 Chronicles 8:1 Mean?

Now Benjamin brought forth Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third.

1 Chronicles 8:1 · 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

Now Benjamin begat Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third,

THE KEY

The root beneath “begat” also names children and generations, so this list presents a family line as one continuous act of bringing forth.

THE MEANING

Benjamin’s name means “son of the right hand,” and from him the verse names Bela as firstborn, then Ashbel and Aharah in order. The sequence holds distinct names within a life received through relation and carried forward through generations.

THE ROOT

הוֹלִיד

holid

GROWS FROM

ילד

yalad

to bear, beget, bring forth

“brought forth” in this verse is holid. English “begat” can sound like a single event, but ⁨ילד⁩ also gives the language for a child and for generations. These names are branches of the same act of bringing forth, carrying a family through time.

ALSO GROWS

yeled: child

יֶלֶד

The act of begetting gives rise to a child: the person named in the genealogy.

toledot: generations, genealogies

תּוֹלְדוֹת

The same root names the generations that extend from each act of begetting.

בְּכֹרוֹ

bekhoro

GROWS FROM

בכר

bakhar

to be firstborn, bring forth first

The root ⁨בכר⁩ links the firstborn with the first yield and the birthright. Bela is first in the sequence, so the verse joins birth order with the beginning of an inheritance.

ALSO GROWS

bekhorah: birthright, firstborn status

בְּכוֹרָה

Birth order can carry a place of inheritance, giving the firstborn’s position weight beyond sequence.

bikkurim: first fruits

בִּכּוּרִים

The first yield is the beginning of a harvest, echoing Bela’s place at the head of this line.

THE PATTERN

A life is named distinctly while belonging to a line carried through generations.

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 a human life within generations, just as this passage names sons within a family line.

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

Ruth 4:18 · SDVThe named generations make each person distinct while showing how one life gives rise to the next.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThis opening names a person through the line of those who came before him.

THE THREAD

I recount the decree. The LORD says to me, You are my Son; today I have brought you forth.

Psalm 2:7 · SDV

Psalm 2:7 uses ⁨ילד⁩ (yalad, to beget), the same root as “begat” here. The shared word opens the genealogy’s language of family relation onto a declaration of sonship.

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