What Does 1 Chronicles 1:2 Mean in the King James?
Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Mahalaleel means “praise of God,” while Jered carries “descent”, the genealogy preserves both meanings inside the names.
THE MEANING
This line makes ancestry more than a bare sequence: one name holds praise of God, another holds descent. Your present life also arrives through lines of meaning that began before you, and this verse keeps those meanings visible inside the names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A name is only a label with no meaning beneath it.
THE ROOT
מַהֲלַלְאֵל
Mahalal’el
GROWS FROM
הלל
Praise; acclaim; make much of.
The English eye can pass over Mahalaleel as a proper name, while its first element keeps the praise-family audible and El names its recipient. The name holds praise directed to God inside this genealogy.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise, a song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This noun from the same root makes the praise within Mahalaleel’s name audible as a form of praise.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah
הַלְלוּיָהּ
The praise-root joins a form of address to God, echoing the name’s pairing of praise with El.
יֶרֶד
Yered
GROWS FROM
ירד
To descend, go down.
In Jered, the root of descent survives as a personal name: downward movement is written into the name itself. Beside Mahalaleel, it keeps descent and praise in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: To descend, go down
יָרַד
This verb carries the movement held within Jered’s name.
yeridah: Descent, going down
יְרִידָה
This noun makes the root’s movement into a thing or process, revealing the same meaning beneath the name.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, a name can preserve a person’s nature or work inside the story, so a genealogy can carry meaning as well as descent.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.THE THREAD
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.The word translated “descending” is יָרַד (yarad, “to descend”), the same root carried by Jered’s name, יֶרֶד (Yered, “descent”). The genealogy’s name echoes the motion in Jacob’s dream, where descent is part of the passage between heaven and earth.
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