What Does 1 Chronicles 9:16 Mean in the King James?
And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, that dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites.
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
This genealogy names service and hearing, then gives them a dwelling place: identity here is a living inheritance, not a bare record.
THE MEANING
Your life takes shape through relationships you did not begin: names and ways of being pass through generations and become rooted in a place. The verse holds inheritance and belonging together, tracing a line of people who dwell among others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that identity is self-made and placeless: a life is also formed by what it inherits and where it takes root.
THE ROOT
עֹבַדְיָה
ʿŌḇaḏyāh
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
serve
Obadiah means “servant of the LORD,” making service part of the name carried in this line. The same root names both the act of serving and the servant, holding what a person does together with who they are.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāḇaḏ: serve
עָבַד
The verb reveals the action held within Obadiah’s name.
ʿeḇeḏ: servant
עֶבֶד
This noun shows how the root can name the person shaped by that service.
שְׁמַעְיָה
Šĕmaʿyāh
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
hear, listen
Shemaiah means “the LORD has heard.” The root can carry listening that responds, so this name makes hearing a living relation, not just the reception of sound.
ALSO GROWS
šāmaʿ: hear, listen, respond
שָׁמַע
This verb holds the responsive sense inside the name.
šĕmûʿāh: report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows what has been heard moving onward as a report.
יֹשֵׁב
yōšēḇ
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-š-b
sit, dwell, remain
The verb behind “dwelt” carries sitting and remaining as well as inhabiting. The place at the end of the genealogy is part of the line’s lived shape, not merely a label attached to it.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaḇ: sit, dwell, remain
יָשַׁב
This verb shows the settled presence expressed by “dwelt.”
mōšāḇ: dwelling, settlement
מוֹשָׁב
This related word makes the connection between remaining and a place of habitation visible.
THE PATTERN
What is received across generations takes shape through named relationships and is carried into the next generation.
The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.THE THREAD
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.“Dwelt” here and in Genesis 13:12 comes from יָשַׁב (yāšaḇ), meaning “to sit, dwell, remain.” The shared root makes dwelling part of how a life is located and takes shape, giving the genealogy’s final detail a deeper weight than a simple address.
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