What Does Genesis 10:29 Mean?
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
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 Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.THE KEY
The verse names a family line through Joktan, whose name is linked to smallness, and sons, a word traditionally connected with building.
THE MEANING
This verse presents belonging through particular names and relationships: Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab are named as Joktan’s sons. Joktan is commonly linked to “small” or “little,” while the Hebrew word for “sons” is traditionally connected with “building,” holding smallness and continuation together.
THE ROOT
יָקְטָן
Yoqtan
GROWS FROM
קטנ
q-ṭ-n
Be small; be little.
Joktan’s name is commonly related to the Hebrew root for smallness. That gives this family line a name whose nature carries the sense of “little,” even as the verse names the descendants who continue it.
ALSO GROWS
qāṭān: Small; young.
קָטָן
This adjective makes the smallness carried in Joktan’s name more visible.
qāṭōn: Small; little.
קָטֹן
This related form keeps the same root sense of being small or lesser.
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build; establish.
The word for “sons” is בְּנֵי (bənê, sons of), from בֵּן (bēn, son), traditionally connected with בָּנָה (bānāh, build). The line can therefore be heard as more than descent: it is a family being built onward through its named members.
ALSO GROWS
bēn: Son.
בֵּן
This is the singular form behind בְּנֵי, the word translated “sons” here.
bānāh: Build; establish.
בָּנָה
Its traditional connection with ben adds the image of a line built onward through children.
THE PATTERN
A lineage becomes visible as names and relationships are carried forward.
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.And Joktan brought forth Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,Who was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad, who was the son of Sem, who was the son of Noe, who was the son of Lamech.THE THREAD
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.Genesis 10:25 introduces Joktan as Eber’s son, and Genesis 10:29 continues the same line by naming Joktan’s sons. The name first placed in a relationship becomes the hinge for another generation of names.
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