What Does 1 Chronicles 9:12 Mean?

And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchiah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;

1 Chronicles 9:12 · 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 Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;

THE KEY

Jeroham’s name carries the root of compassion through the chain that names Adaiah.

THE MEANING

Adaiah is named within a chain of ancestors, not as an isolated identity. Jeroham’s name means “may he be shown compassion,” from ⁨רָחַם⁩ (rāḥam, to have compassion), a root also found in the word for womb; that meaning travels with the names preserved here.

THE ROOT

יְרֹחָם

Yeroḥam

GROWS FROM

רחם

r-ḥ-m

Have compassion; show mercy.

Jeroham means “may he be shown compassion,” from the root ⁨רחם⁩ (r-ḥ-m). The same root gives Hebrew ⁨רֶחֶם⁩ (reḥem, womb), so the name carries compassion alongside an image of life held and formed.

ALSO GROWS

raḥamim: Compassion, mercies.

רַחֲמִים

This is the familiar plural form from the same root, making the compassion in Jeroham’s name audible as a continuing quality.

reḥem: Womb.

רֶחֶם

The shared root links compassion with the womb, adding an image of life held and cared for to a name in this line of descent.

THE PATTERN

Scripture places a person within a line by preserving the names and relations that carry that line forward.

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 generations are recorded as a line, so a person’s place is carried by the names and relations around him.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThe opening locates Jesus within a named chain of ancestors.

Who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.

Luke 3:38 · SDVThe repeated relations extend a person’s place through a line of names.

THE THREAD

And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,

Exodus 34:6 · SDV

Jeroham’s name grows from ⁨רחם⁩ (r-ḥ-m), the root of compassion; “merciful” in this verse is ⁨רַחוּם⁩ (raḥum), from the same root. The genealogy carries that root inside a personal name, while Exodus names compassion as part of the LORD’s nature.

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