What Does 1 Samuel 14:51 Mean?

And Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

1 Samuel 14:51 · 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 Kish was the father of Saul; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

THE KEY

The word “son” shares the root ⁨בנה⁩ (banah, “build”), so this genealogy presents a family line as something built through relation.

THE MEANING

Identity is carried through relation: Saul is named through Kish, and Abner is traced through Ner to Abiel. ⁨אבנר⁩ (Avner, “father of a lamp”) joins father and lamp; ⁨אביאל⁩ (Aviel, “my father is God”) joins father and God.

THE ROOT

בֵּן

ben

GROWS FROM

בנה

banah

Build, establish.

English “son” sounds like a fixed family label, but ⁨בֵּן⁩ (ben, “son”) belongs to the ⁨בנה⁩ (banah, “build”) word-family. Here that shared root lets descent read as continuity built from one generation into the next.

ALSO GROWS

ben: Son, descendant.

בֵּן

This branch names the person who carries a family line forward.

banah: To build, establish.

בָּנָה

This branch reveals the building sense carried by the word-family behind “son.”

binyan: Building, structure.

בִּנְיָן

This branch makes the family line legible as a structure formed across generations.

THE PATTERN

A person’s name enters scripture within a chain of kinship, where identity is carried through generations.

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 · SDVSeth is named within a line that carries likeness from parent to child.

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

Matthew 1:1 · SDVThe opening names Jesus through a chain of descent reaching David and Abraham.

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 chain of names carries identity through generations all the way to Adam and God.

THE THREAD

And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:2 · SDV

“Obtain children” renders a phrase built from ⁨בָּנָה⁩ (banah, “build”), the same root-family behind ⁨בֵּן⁩ (ben, “son”). The shared root lets the genealogy’s son-language carry the image of a family line being built.

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