What Does 1 Chronicles 4:1 Mean in the King James?

The sons of Judah; Pharez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur, and Shobal.

1 Chronicles 4:1 · KJV

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 name Pharez means “breach,” so this lineage carries a breaking-through within its very list of names.

THE MEANING

This verse traces Judah’s line through named people, with Pharez at its beginning. His name means “breach,” keeping the image of breaking through inside the lineage as it continues.

THE ROOT

פֶּרֶץ

Pereṣ

GROWS FROM

פרץ

To break through, burst forth, or make an opening

English gives Pharez as a personal name, while the Hebrew preserves the image of breaking through. The related verb means “break through,” and the noun means “breach,” so the name carries an opening into this family line.

ALSO GROWS

pāraṣ: To break through or burst forth

פָּרַץ

This verb makes the movement inside Pharez’s name audible: someone breaks through.

pōrēṣ: Breaker; one who breaks through

פֹּרֵץ

Micah uses this form for the one who opens a way through, linking Pharez’s name to passage beyond a breach.

THE PATTERN

A breach can become both an opening into a new passage and a name carried forward through a lineage.

And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.

Genesis 38:29 · KJVThe breaking through is spoken aloud as a breach, and Pharez receives that moment as his name.

The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

Micah 2:13 · KJVThe same root pictures a breaker opening a way through, followed by people passing through the gate.

And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

Matthew 1:3 · KJVThe name Pharez remains in a later genealogy, with the breach carried forward as part of the line’s remembered beginning.

THE THREAD

And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.

Genesis 38:29 · KJV

Genesis names Pharez at the moment of breaking through, using the same root that gives the name its meaning. Here in Chronicles, that breach is no longer only an event: it is carried forward as a name within Judah’s lineage.

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