What Does 1 Chronicles 6:38 Mean in the King James?
The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.
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 repeated “son of” carries a building-root, so this genealogy presents identity taking shape through generations.
THE MEANING
Your life is not self-originating: identity arrives through names and relationships that carry a line forward. Here the line reaches יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el, “one who strives with God”) and passes through לֵוִי (Levi, “joined”), holding struggle and belonging together. The repeated “son of” makes that inherited connection the structure of the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that a life is self-made and begins with itself gives way to a life carried through generations and relationships.
THE ROOT
בֵּן
ben
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
Build, establish.
The Hebrew noun בֵּן (ben, “son”) is linked to בָּנָה (bānāh, “build”). English presents separate links in the genealogy; the Hebrew lets the line also sound like a family being built across generations.
ALSO GROWS
build: To build or establish.
בָּנָה
The building sense lets “son” resonate with the continuation of a family through each generation.
’ibbāneh: I may be built up; in context, obtain children.
אִבָּנֶה
In Genesis 16:2, Sarai uses this form for becoming a mother through Hagar, expressing family formation as being built.
לֵוִי
Levi
GROWS FROM
לוה
lavah
Join, attach, accompany; also lend.
Levi’s name carries the sense of joining inside this chain of descent. The line is made of relationships that attach one generation to another.
ALSO GROWS
yillāweh: Be joined or attached.
יִלָּוֶה
In Genesis 29:34, Leah uses this verb when she names Levi, making the name itself express joining.
lend: Lend or extend a loan.
תַלְוֶה
The same root reaches into lending, an act that binds one person to another through what is entrusted.
THE PATTERN
Identity is carried forward through a chain of named generations.
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.THE THREAD
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.The Hebrew behind “obtain children” is אִבָּנֶה (’ibbāneh, “I may be built up”), from the same בנה (banah, “build”) root linked to בֵּן (ben, “son”). That root makes the repeated “son of” in this verse resonate with a family being built through generations.
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