What Does 1 Chronicles 1:50 Mean in the King James?
And when Baal-hanan was dead, Hadad reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pai; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
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
The ruler’s office changes hands, but the names preserve more than labels: they carry the nature of the people and place.
THE MEANING
A reign ends and another begins in its place; mortality stands beside continuity. The verse names a city, then follows a woman’s identity through her mother and grandmother, keeping lineage visible alongside the changing ruler. Mehetabel is often understood as “God does good,” a nature held inside a name even in this brief record.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that when power ends, every identity tied to it disappears. Here a reign ends, while a place, a woman, and her lineage remain named.
THE ROOT
מְהֵיטַבְאֵל
Mĕhêṭavʾēl
GROWS FROM
יטב
y-ṭ-b
To be good or pleasing; in a causative form, to do good.
Mehetabel is often parsed through יָטַב (yāṭav, “be good”) and אֵל (ʾEl, “God”), with a sense like “God does good.” Her name can carry a statement of nature within this spare genealogy, though the verse does not describe that good as an event.
ALSO GROWS
yāṭav: To be good, pleasing, or beneficial.
יָטַב
This is the basic condition of goodness that the name invokes.
hēṭîv: To do what is good or make something go well.
הֵיטִיב
This causative form gives the name its active “God does good” sense.
וַיִּמְלֹךְ
vayyimlōkh
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
To be king or rule; the same root names the king and the kingdom.
“reigned” in this verse is vayyimlōkh. The Hebrew word for reigning grows from the same root as the word for king and kingdom. Rule is not an abstract office here: the verse shows it passing from one named ruler to another.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: A king or ruler.
מֶלֶךְ
The person who reigns and the action of reigning share the same root.
malkût: Kingship, rule, or kingdom.
מַלְכוּת
The realm and the act of ruling belong to the same word family.
mamlākhāh: A kingdom or territory under rule.
מַמְלָכָה
The root links the ruler’s authority to the domain it governs.
וַיָּמָת
wayyāmāṯ
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
To die; the root also forms words for death and the dead.
“was dead” in this verse is wayyāmāṯ. The verb for Baal-hanan’s death belongs to the same root as “death” and “dead.” The verse does not hide the end of one reign; it places the next reign directly after it.
ALSO GROWS
mût: To die.
מוּת
This is the verbal root of the death that ends Baal-hanan’s reign.
māvet: Death.
מָוֶת
The event and the state of death share the root.
mēt: A dead person; dead.
מֵת
The root names both the dying and the condition that follows.
THE PATTERN
A name can carry the nature of the one who bears it, making identity visible in the name itself.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.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
God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.The verb translated “reigned” in this verse and “reigneth” in the psalm comes from the same Hebrew root, מלך (m-l-k), meaning to rule. Here one king dies and another reigns; the psalm uses that same root for God’s reign, extending the connection beyond this succession.
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