What Does 1 Chronicles 5:4 Mean in the King James?
The sons of Joel; Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
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
Shemaiah and Shimei echo the Hebrew root for hearing, carrying that meaning through this father-to-son line.
THE MEANING
This line preserves people through their names and their relationships. Shemaiah and Shimei share an echo of the Hebrew root for hearing, so the names carry that meaning forward. A life is not an isolated label; it belongs to a story that extends beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This passage undoes the belief that a name is only a label or that a life stands apart from those connected to it.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַעְיָה
Shema‘yah Shim‘i
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or attend.
The names Shemaiah and Shimei echo שמע (shama‘, hear), keeping hearing audible within this lineage. Shemaiah is commonly understood as “YHWH has heard”; Shimei is a hearing-root name, often glossed “heard.”
ALSO GROWS
shama‘: Hear, listen, attend.
שָׁמַע
This verb is the shared seed beneath the names’ hearing echo.
Shema‘yah: YHWH has heard.
שְׁמַעְיָה
This is the first hearing-root name in the listed father-to-son chain.
Shim‘i: A hearing-root name, often rendered “heard.”
שִׁמְעִי
The root echo appears again at the end of the chain, linking the names across generations.
THE PATTERN
Names can carry a relationship or testimony forward through generations.
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.THE THREAD
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.Ishmael (יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Yishma‘el) means “God hears,” and the verse explicitly ties his name to the LORD hearing affliction. Shemaiah and Shimei carry the same hearing-root echo inside the lineage named here.
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