What Does 2 Chronicles 11:18 Mean?
And Rehoboam took for himself Mahalath, daughter of Jerimoth son of David, as wife, and Abihail, daughter of Eliab son of Jesse;
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 Rehoboam took him Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David to wife, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse;THE KEY
This family note makes Rehoboam’s household a meeting point for two branches of Jesse’s line, while the names speak of breadth, height, and strength.
THE MEANING
Your life is never contained in one straight line: you stand among relationships and inheritances that cross and converge. Rehoboam’s two marriages link one branch through David and another through Eliab, son of Jesse; the names carry breadth, height, and strength into the same household. The verse meets you now as a map of belonging layered through people and names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that a family can be understood through one direct line alone: Rehoboam’s household is tied to two distinct branches of Jesse’s family.
THE ROOT
רְחַבְעָם
Reḥav‘am
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To widen, broaden, or make spacious.
Rehoboam’s name joins רחב (raḥav, “widen”) with עם (‘am, “people”), often understood as “the people are enlarged.” The verse places that image of breadth beside two family lines gathered into one household.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: A broad or open place.
מֶרְחָב
This same root gives the verse’s hidden image of spaciousness; Psalm 18:19 uses it for the “large place” into which the speaker is brought.
Reḥovot: Broad places; room.
רְחֹבוֹת
The name Rehoboth comes from this root and appears alongside the statement that the LORD has made room, showing breadth as space opened for life.
יְרִימוֹת
Yerimot
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
To rise, be high, or be exalted.
Jerimoth carries the language of height in the middle of the family line. Alongside Rehoboam’s name of widening, the genealogy’s names hold spatial meanings as well as relationships.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or exalted.
רָם
This branch shows the plain sense of rising or height carried by Jerimoth’s root.
terumah: A contribution or portion lifted up.
תְּרוּמָה
The lifted portion preserves the root’s movement upward, showing how the root extends from height into an act of setting something apart.
אֲבִיחַיִל
’Avīḥayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
ḥ-y-l
Strength, capacity, or force; the name also includes אָב (’av, “father”).
Abihail joins אָב (’av, “father”) to חַיִל (ḥayil, “strength” or “valor”). Strength is held inside a relationship in the name itself, echoing the verse’s attention to family ties.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayil: Strength, valor, or capacity.
חַיִל
This branch gives the name’s sense of strength and vigor.
ḥeil: An army or force.
חֵיל
The same root can name strength gathered into a collective force, adding a communal dimension to the name’s meaning.
THE PATTERN
Scripture keeps identity relational by naming the lines through which a person is connected.
And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of 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.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.Rehoboam’s name contains רחב (raḥav, “widen”), joined to עם (‘am, “people”); Psalm 18:19 uses מֶרְחָב (merḥav, “open place”), from the same root. The name’s hidden breadth meets a verse where breadth is experienced as being brought into room.
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