What Does Genesis 10:7 Mean?
And the sons of Cush were Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba, and Dedan.
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 Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “sons” is traditionally linked to “building,” so this genealogy presents descent as a household taking shape through named branches.
THE MEANING
You encounter belonging as a branching line: Cush’s sons are named, then Raamah’s sons are named within it. The repeated word “sons” carries a family-building echo, while Raamah’s name echoes thunder. Each name stays distinct within the same line.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
benê
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or establish; the noun בֵּן (ben, son) is traditionally associated with this root.
The form here, בְּנֵי (benê), means “sons of” and names a line of descent. Its association with building lets you hear the genealogy as a household taking shape through generations.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son
בֵּן
The kinship word names each person as part of a continuing family line.
banah: build
בָּנָה
This related verb gives the genealogy a building image: descendants form a household over time.
רַעְמָה
Raʿmah
GROWS FROM
רעם
To thunder or rumble.
Raamah’s name comes from the sound-family of thunder and rumbling. The name carries that force into this family line, which continues through Sheba and Dedan.
ALSO GROWS
raʿam: thunder, thunderclap
רַעַם
The noun makes audible the force carried in Raamah’s name.
wayyarʿem: and he thundered
וַיַּרְעֵם
This verbal form shows the same root as an action, giving the name a sense of sound in motion.
THE PATTERN
Named generations carry life forward as family lines branch into peoples and histories.
These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their births, in their nations; and from these the nations were parted in the earth after the flood.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their births, in their nations; and from these the nations were parted in the earth after the flood.The same Hebrew word, בְּנֵי (benê, “sons of”), anchors both verses. Here the family branches named in verse 7 widen into the formation of nations, making the genealogy’s pattern visible at a larger scale.
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