What Does Exodus 6:15 Mean?
And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
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 the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman: these are the families of Simeon.THE KEY
Simeon’s name means “hearing,” and this verse shows that nature continuing as a named lineage.
THE MEANING
A family line is made of distinct people, each held in the telling by name. Simeon’s name carries hearing, and the list extends that name into a household whose members remain individually visible, including Shaul, identified through his Canaanite mother.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוֹן
Shim'on
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed; in the name, “hearing” or “heard.”
Simeon is formed from שמע, “to hear,” and his name is tied to being heard by the LORD. Here that name stands over a whole set of named sons: hearing becomes a nature carried within a family, not an abstract trait detached from people.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear, listen, heed
שָׁמַע
This verb is the root visible in Simeon’s name.
shemuʿah: A report; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can be carried and retold, as this verse carries Simeon’s name through a list of descendants.
שָׁאוּל
Sha'ul
GROWS FROM
שאל
Ask or request; Shaul means “asked for” or “requested.”
Even the last name in the list carries a story-like quality: Shaul is “asked for.” The verse also preserves his maternal connection, “the son of a Canaanitish woman”, alongside his place in Simeon’s family.
ALSO GROWS
sha'al: To ask, request
שָׁאַל
Shaul’s name takes its form from this root of asking.
she'elah: A request or question
שְׁאֵלָה
This related noun keeps the act of asking audible inside Shaul’s name.
THE PATTERN
Lineage is carried forward by naming distinct people and preserving the ties that locate them.
The sons of Simeon after their families. Of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites. Of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites. Of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites.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.And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve father-rulers.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bore a son, and she said, Because the LORD has heard that I was hated, he has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon, Heard.This verse gives Simeon’s name its root: שָׁמַע (shamaʿ), “to hear,” as Rachel names him because the LORD hears. Exodus 6:15 places that hearing-name over a list of distinct descendants, making the root a nature carried within a family.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us