What Does 1 Chronicles 8:10 Mean in the King James?

And Jeuz, and Shachia, and Mirma. These were his sons, heads of the fathers.

1 Chronicles 8:10 · 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

These sons are not only descendants; they are the heads through whom their fathers’ households continue.

THE MEANING

A family line is more than ancestry on a page: it takes shape through living people who carry its direction. Here, the sons are also the heads of the fathers’ households, so what came before remains active in those who follow.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the idea that a family line is only a record of the past: its descendants also carry its direction in the present.

THE ROOT

רָאשִׁים

rashim

GROWS FROM

ראש

r-ʾ-sh

Head; top; chief; beginning.

English “heads” can sound only like a title, but ⁨רֹאשׁ⁩ (rosh, head) keeps the image of what is at the top and leads. The same root reaches ⁨רֵאשִׁית⁩ (reshit, beginning), so the sons are presented as both leaders of the household and the point from which its next chapter begins.

ALSO GROWS

rosh: Head; chief.

רֹאשׁ

This is the singular word behind “heads,” keeping the image of leadership rooted in the head of a body.

reshit: Beginning; first part.

רֵאשִׁית

This branch extends the same root toward what comes first, linking household leadership with the beginning of what follows.

בָּנִים

banim

GROWS FROM

בנה

b-n-h

Build; build up.

⁨בָּנִים⁩ (banim, sons) carries an association with ⁨בָּנָה⁩ (banah, to build): descendants are part of how a household is built forward. Beside “heads,” that image makes the line active, the ones who continue the household also take up its direction.

ALSO GROWS

banah: To build.

בָּנָה

The related verb gives “sons” a building image: descendants help the household take shape across generations.

ben: Son.

בֵּן

This singular form names the descendant through whom the family line continues.

THE PATTERN

A family line carries its shape and future forward through its descendants.

These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben.

Exodus 6:14 · KJVThe sons are named within their fathers’ houses, making descent the structure through which a family line continues.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127:3 · KJVChildren appear as an inheritance carried forward, not merely as names attached to a past.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1 · KJVA line of descent carries the names and inheritance of those who came before into the present.

THE THREAD

And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Exodus 18:25 · KJV

“Heads” here uses the same Hebrew word, ⁨רָאשִׁים⁩ (rashim, heads), and makes its leadership sense plain. In 1 Chronicles, the sons are named as heads of their fathers’ households: descendants become the living points through which the family line is carried forward.

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