What Does 1 Chronicles 8:11 Mean?
And from Hushim he brought forth Abitub, and Elpaal.
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 of Hushim he begat Abitub, and Elpaal.THE KEY
The names turn a family line into two claims about what is carried forward: a good father and God at work.
THE MEANING
This verse presents life as arriving through relationship, with names carrying meaning beyond a list of descendants. Abitub says “my father is good,” while Elpaal says “God has acted.” Your identity, too, takes shape within relationships and actions already in motion.
THE ROOT
אֶלְפָּעַל
ʾElpaʿal
GROWS FROM
פעל
paʿal
To do, work, or act.
Elpaal is commonly understood as “God has acted,” and its second element carries the root sense of doing or working. Divine action is part of the nature this name carries through the line.
ALSO GROWS
paʿal: To work or act.
פָּעַל
This verb carries the active sense embedded in Elpaal’s name.
peʿullah: Work or deed.
פְּעֻלָּה
This branch makes the root’s action concrete as something done.
אֲבִיטוּב
ʾAvituv
GROWS FROM
טוב
tov
Good, pleasing, or beneficial.
Abitub is commonly read as “my father is good” or “father of goodness.” Goodness is named here as connected to fatherhood, giving this genealogy a language of nature as well as descent.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good or pleasing.
טוֹב
This is the quality carried in the second element of Abitub’s name.
tovah: Goodness or a good thing.
טוֹבָה
This form makes the name’s quality sound like something present and carried forward.
וַיּוֹלֶד
wayyōled
GROWS FROM
ילד
yalad
To bear, beget, or bring forth.
The verb translated “begat” shares its root with words for a child and for generations. The line is not only recording ancestry; it shows life being brought forth and names being carried onward.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The child is what the act of bringing forth produces.
toledot: Generations or descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch extends the act of begetting into a continuing family line.
THE PATTERN
A genealogy carries identity forward through bringing forth and naming each generation.
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.Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.THE THREAD
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.Genesis uses the same root for begetting, then makes likeness explicit. That opens this verse further: Abitub and Elpaal’s names are part of what this family line brings forward.
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