What Does 1 Chronicles 1:8 Mean in the King James?
The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
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 Hebrew for “sons” grows from “build,” so this list presents a people as a house taking shape through generations.
THE MEANING
This verse places Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan as distinct names within Ham’s family line. It holds difference and kinship together, while the name Mizraim carries the image of constriction within the genealogy.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
b'nei
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, construct (banah).
The word for sons belongs to the בנה family, the seed of building. Hebrew holds offspring and construction close: a family takes shape across generations, and these names appear as branches of that structure.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build, construct
בָּנָה
This verb gives the family word its building root.
boneh: builder; one who builds
בּוֹנֶה
A family line is made of those who carry its structure forward.
mivneh: structure, building
מִבְנֶה
This branch makes the family-as-structure connection explicit.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
מצר
A narrow place or strait (metsar); constriction.
“Mizraim” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The consonants in Mitzrayim open onto מצר, the Hebrew word for a narrow place, while the -ayim ending carries the image of doubled constriction. Even within a genealogy, the name holds a landscape of narrowness alongside the wider movement toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
metsar: narrow place, strait
מֵצָר
This word shares all three root consonants and gives the name its image of constriction.
metsarim: straits, narrow places
מְצָרִים
This plural carries the same consonants into an image of constriction in more than one place.
THE PATTERN
Distinct peoples branch from shared human families without losing their common source.
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;THE THREAD
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.Genesis 10:32 uses the same Hebrew word בְּנֵי (b’nei, sons), from בנה (banah, build), and widens the frame from Ham’s sons to Noah’s families and the nations. The shared root makes this genealogy part of one structure taking shape through branches.
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