What Does Exodus 6:17 Mean?
The sons of Gershon were Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.
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
The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.THE KEY
This genealogy carries more than descent: its names retain echoes of expulsion, whiteness, and hearing within the family line.
THE MEANING
A name does not stand alone here; each belongs to a family and is carried within its lineage. The names remain distinct even as the verse places them together in one household.
THE ROOT
גֵּרְשׁוֹן
Gēršōn
GROWS FROM
ג־ר־שׁ
G-R-Sh
Possibly linked to גָּרַשׁ (garash), to drive out or expel; Gershon’s precise name derivation is uncertain.
“Gershon” in this verse is Gēršōn. This possible root places an echo of expulsion inside the family record, where the name stands among generations that belong together. The connection is suggestive rather than certain.
ALSO GROWS
garash: To send away or force out.
גָּרַשׁ
This verb supplies the possible displacement echo in Gershon’s name.
gerush: The act of driving away or removing.
גֵּרוּשׁ
This noun keeps the same root’s sense of being sent out.
לִבְנִי
Libnī
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־ן
L-B-N
White; to be or become white.
Libni is commonly connected with the root for whiteness. Its sound carries that quality into the genealogy, though the verse does not explain what it means for this person.
ALSO GROWS
lavan: White or becoming white.
לָבָן
This is the basic color sense associated with Libni’s name.
levanah: The moon, named with an association to whiteness.
לְבָנָה
This branch carries the root’s pale or white quality into a different image.
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿī
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
Sh-M-ʿ
To hear or listen.
Shimi is associated with hearing: the name holds an act of listening within the family record. The same root moves between hearing and what is heard, so sound can become a name carried forward.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: To hear attentively.
שְׁמַע
This is the root’s direct action, echoed in Shimi’s name.
shemuʿah: A message or report that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root extends from listening to what listening receives and carries.
THE PATTERN
A name in scripture can carry a life’s circumstance or meaning forward through generations.
And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom, the sojourner, for he said, A sojourner I have been in a foreign land.And Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, see-a-son, for she said, Surely the LORD has seen my bending low. Now therefore my husband will love me.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom, the sojourner, for he said, A sojourner I have been in a foreign land.The near-identical name Gershom is explained through the words “I have been a stranger in a strange land,” showing a name holding a lived condition. That opens Gershon here as more than a sound in a list, while leaving its precise derivation uncertain.
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