What Does 1 Chronicles 7:13 Mean in the King James?
The sons of Naphtali; Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.
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
Even this brief genealogy keeps people from vanishing into a count: the names Jezer and Shallum still carry roots of formation and wholeness.
THE MEANING
Your place in a wider story is held through particular people and relationships; it does not dissolve into a number. Here, Naphtali’s sons remain distinct by name, and Bilhah remains visible as their mother.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that family history reduces people to anonymous numbers: the sons are named one by one, and the line still names Bilhah.
THE ROOT
יֵצֶר
yēṣer
GROWS FROM
יצר
y-ṣ-r
To form, shape, or fashion.
Jezer is commonly connected with יֵצֶר (yēṣer, formation), from יָצַר (yāṣar, to form). The name carries the language of shaping inside a verse that preserves each person as distinct.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣar: To form, shape, or fashion.
יָצַר
The verb behind the name’s formation sense makes Jezer more than a label in the family list.
yēṣer: Formation, formed purpose, or inclination.
יֵצֶר
This noun gives the name a sense of something shaped or taking form.
yōṣēr: One who forms; a potter or maker.
יוֹצֵר
The same root can name the one who shapes, linking the person’s name to the wider image of formation.
שַׁלּוּם
Shallūm
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole or complete; also to make good or repay.
Shallum belongs to שׁלם (š-l-m), whose range holds wholeness and making good or recompense together. English presents only a name, while the Hebrew root-family carries those related senses beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, or peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the root’s sense of completeness carried into the name.
shalēm: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
It makes the connection between Shallum and completeness explicit.
shillēm: To repay or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch preserves the root’s other shade, where wholeness is restored by making good what is owed.
THE PATTERN
Scripture preserves identity by naming people and keeping their relationships visible.
And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: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
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?Jezer is commonly connected with יֵצֶר (yēṣer, formation), from יָצַר (yāṣar, to form); Isaiah 29:16 repeats this root for the shaper and the shaped. The shared root lets the name carry the language of formation inside a line that preserves people as distinct persons.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us