What Does Genesis 10:26 Mean?
And Joktan brought forth Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah.
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 Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “begat” also forms the word for “child,” holding the act of bringing forth and the life brought forth in one word family.
THE MEANING
This verse presents four distinct lives as branches of one continuing line: Joktan brings them forth, and each receives a name. The list keeps origin and distinction together; each person belongs to a lineage without becoming interchangeable with the others.
THE ROOT
יָלַד
yalad
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear or bring forth; to give birth.
The verb for bringing forth and the noun for a child grow from the same Hebrew root, keeping the act and the one brought forth linguistically joined. The verse reads as life carried through a line of distinct names, with each new branch still connected to its source.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child; boy.
יֶלֶד
The child is named by the same root as the act of begetting, linking each descendant to the bringing forth that precedes them.
moledet: Birth; kindred or birthplace.
מוֹלֶדֶת
This branch can name both birth and belonging, echoing how the verse gives each person a place within a continuing family line.
THE PATTERN
Life appears in scripture as a line of birth in which each generation receives both a source and a distinct name.
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.To Eber were born two sons; the name of the one was Peleg, the splitting, for in his days the earth was split; and the name of his brother was Joktan.Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.THE THREAD
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.“Begat” in both verses comes from the Hebrew root ילד (yalad), meaning to bear or bring forth. Genesis 5:3 makes the link especially visible: the act of bringing forth is joined to a son who receives a name and continues the line.
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