What Does 1 Chronicles 8:3 Mean?

And the sons of Bela were Addar, and Gera, and Abihud.

1 Chronicles 8:3 · 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

And the sons of Bela were, Addar, and Gera, and Abihud,

THE KEY

The word for “sons” echoes the act of building: each named life carries the family line forward.

THE MEANING

The verse presents a family line made of distinct people: Addar, Gera, and Abihud each belong to Bela, and each keeps a name of his own. It holds belonging and individual identity together.

THE ROOT

בְּנֵי

benei

GROWS FROM

בנה

banah

build, establish

“sons” in this verse is benei. The word ⁨בֵּן⁩ (ben, “son”) is traditionally connected with ⁨בָּנָה⁩ (banah, “build”). The family line reads as something built through named lives, not merely a sequence of English labels.

ALSO GROWS

ben: son

בֵּן

The son is the person through whom the family line continues.

banah: build

בָּנָה

This verb echoes the way each generation carries the household forward.

THE PATTERN

A named lineage carries continuity by holding individual identities within a shared family line.

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 5:3 · SDVA son carries the line forward while receiving a name and a distinct place within it.

Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Exodus 1:1 · SDVThe names hold a shared family identity together with the distinct households within it.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVA line of named relationships connects one generation to another.

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 5:3 · SDV

The same word for “son” appears where lineage is joined to likeness and image. Here, the named sons show a line carried forward without making its members interchangeable.

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