What Does 1 Chronicles 8:35 Mean?

And the sons of Micah were Pithon, and Melech, and Tarea, and Ahaz.

1 Chronicles 8:35 · 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 Micah were, Pithon, and Melech, and Tarea, and Ahaz.

THE KEY

One son’s name is the Hebrew word for “king,” so the language of rule appears here first as a name.

THE MEANING

As you read, the verse names four sons: Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz. Melech is also the Hebrew word for king, carrying the language of rule within this family record. The verse names these people without telling you what each one does.

THE ROOT

מֶלֶךְ

melekh

GROWS FROM

מלך

Rule, reign, or kingship.

English leaves the name looking opaque, but Melech is the same form as the Hebrew word for “king.” Its root opens a field of reigning and royal rule; the verse gives no basis to say this son himself rules.

ALSO GROWS

melekh: King.

מֶלֶךְ

This is the word carried directly in the son’s name.

malakh: To reign or rule as king.

מָלַךְ

The verb reveals the action beneath the name’s language of kingship.

mamlakhah: Kingdom or royal rule.

מַמְלָכָה

This branch shows how the root extends from a king to the realm or rule associated with kingship.

THE PATTERN

The Hebrew king-root can name a ruler or describe the act and office of ruling.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; and he was the priest of God Most High.

Genesis 14:18 · SDVThe king-root appears in Melchizedek’s name and in the title “king of Salem.”

And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you.

Judges 8:23 · SDVThe root appears as the act of ruling, repeated across Gideon’s refusal and his declaration about the LORD.

And the LORD said to Samuel, Hear and respond to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not spurned you, but they have spurned me, that I should not reign over them.

1 Samuel 8:7 · SDVThe same root describes the LORD’s reign, showing its use for the office and action of kingship.

THE THREAD

And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you.

Judges 8:23 · SDV

Melech carries the king-root in a son’s name, while Judges 8:23 uses that root for the act of ruling. The shared root connects the name to kingship without claiming that Micah’s son held that office.

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