What Does Exodus 1:3 Mean?
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.
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
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,THE KEY
These names carry three meanings beneath their labels: recompense, dwelling, and the strength of the right hand.
THE MEANING
Your name can hold more than a label: this verse carries recompense, the longing for a place to dwell, and the strength of the right hand. Identity has texture even before the next action is named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A name is only a label with nothing of a person’s nature inside it.
THE ROOT
בִּנְיָמִין
Binyamin
GROWS FROM
ימן
y-m-n
Right hand or right side, associated with strength and favor.
“Benjamin” in this verse is Binyamin. The name joins בֵּן (ben, “son”) to יָמִין (yāmîn, “right hand”), naming a child by the place of strength at one’s right side. Genesis 35:18 sets it beside בֶּן־אוֹנִי (Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”), so the name carries a different nature without making the grief disappear.
ALSO GROWS
yāmîn: Right hand; right side.
יָמִין
This is the part of Benjamin that gives the name its image of strength at the right hand.
tēmān: South.
תֵּימָן
The south is named from the right-hand direction when facing east, extending the root’s sense of orientation.
זְבֻלוּן
Zebulun
GROWS FROM
זבל
z-b-l
To dwell with or honor; a dwelling or exalted abode.
“Zebulun” in this verse is Zebulun. The name is linked with Leah’s phrase about her husband dwelling with her. Its sound and root leave the name carrying both habitation and the desire to be held in regard.
ALSO GROWS
zābal: To dwell with; to honor.
זָבַל
Leah’s naming line connects Zebulun to the hope that her husband will dwell with her.
zebul: Dwelling; exalted abode.
זְבוּל
This branch lets the name hold a place of habitation, not merely a person’s label.
יִשָּׂשכָר
Yissakhar
GROWS FROM
שכר
ś-k-r
To hire or reward; wages and recompense.
“Issachar” in this verse is Yissakhar. The name is paired in its naming verse with שָׂכָר (sākār, “wages” or “recompense”), so labor and its return are carried inside the name. The same root names both recompense and the hired person, joining what is earned to the one who works.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Wages; recompense.
שָׂכָר
This is the word Leah uses when she explains Issachar’s name.
śākîr: A hired person; a hireling.
שָׂכִיר
The branch names the person whose labor is tied to the root’s wages and recompense.
THE PATTERN
A name can carry an identity that the words around it unfold.
And it came to pass, as her living soul was going out, for she died, that she called his name Benoni, son of my bowing low. And his father called him Benjamin, son of the right hand.And the nations shall see your alignment, and all kings your weight; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as her living soul was going out, for she died, that she called his name Benoni, son of my bowing low. And his father called him Benjamin, son of the right hand.Rachel names him בֶּן־אוֹנִי (Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”) as she is dying; his father names him בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin, “son of the right hand”). The Benjamin in this list carries that naming forward without removing the grief at its beginning.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us