What Does 1 Chronicles 6:17 Mean in the King James?
And these be the names of the sons of Gershom; Libni, and Shimei.
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 list is not only a record of descent: its names hold sojourning, whiteness, and hearing together.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks through names that carry meaning across a family line: sojourning in Gershom, whiteness in Libni, and hearing in Shimei. Identity holds more than what is visible; it also carries the meanings compressed into what a person is called.
THE ROOT
גֵּרְשֹׁם
Gēršōm
GROWS FROM
גּוּר
gūr
To sojourn or dwell as an outsider.
Gershom is commonly read as ger sham, “a sojourner there,” and the root גּוּר (gūr) means to sojourn. The name holds displacement inside identity, carrying the condition of living as an outsider within a family line.
ALSO GROWS
ger: Sojourner or resident alien.
גֵּר
This is the person formed by the root’s sense of dwelling among others as an outsider.
megurim: Sojournings or temporary dwellings.
מְגוּרִים
The plural form makes sojourning into an ongoing condition, giving depth to the movement held in Gershom’s name.
לִבְנִי
Libnī
GROWS FROM
לָבַן
lāvan
To be white or become white.
Libni carries the root of whiteness in its name, a shade that English leaves hidden. The same root links a person’s name with the color white and the brightness associated with the moon.
ALSO GROWS
lāvan: White.
לָבָן
This is the direct color-word behind the meaning commonly given for Libni.
levānāh: The moon, literally associated with “the white one.”
לְבָנָה
This familiar image carries the root’s whiteness into the night sky.
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿī
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
shāmaʿ
To hear or listen.
Shimei is tied to the root of hearing, so the name carries listening as part of the line’s identity. That same root names both the act of hearing and what arrives as a report to be heard.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the action at the root of Shimei’s name.
shemuʿāh: A report or piece of news; that which is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch turns hearing into something received and carried onward, echoing the way names travel through a lineage.
THE PATTERN
A name can hold a defining meaning and carry it beyond the moment it is given.
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.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 she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.Exodus connects the name Gershom with being a stranger in a strange land; that Gershom is Moses’s son, distinct from the Levite named in this genealogy. The shared name lets the root of sojourning surface inside an otherwise bare family list.
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