What Does 1 Chronicles 9:35 Mean in the King James?
And in Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon, Jehiel, whose wife’s name was Maachah:
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 genealogy turns dwelling into identity: a household is located through where it has settled and the bonds it carries.
THE MEANING
You are located by the life you have settled into and the bonds that shape your household. Even this brief line makes belonging tangible: a place, a father, a wife, and the names attached to them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A household is not just a list of labels with place as background; here, settlement and kinship are part of how it is known.
THE ROOT
יָשְׁבוּ
yāshvū
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, settle, or dwell.
“dwelt” in this verse is yāshvū. The Hebrew word for dwelling holds the sense of sitting or settling: this household is not merely associated with Gibeon but established there. English gives the location; the root also carries the feeling of taking one’s place.
ALSO GROWS
yoshēv: One who sits or dwells; an inhabitant.
יוֹשֵׁב
The inhabitant is described through the same root as settling into a place.
moshāv: A dwelling place, seat, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
The root turns the act of settling into the place where people make their home.
גִּבְעוֹן
Givʿōn
GROWS FROM
גבע
Hill or rising ground.
Gibeon belongs to the Hebrew hill-word family, so the place-name carries the contour of rising ground. The verse locates this household in a name that already holds the shape of the land.
ALSO GROWS
givʿāh: A hill.
גִּבְעָה
This related form makes the terrain within the name Gibeon visible.
givʿōt: Hills.
גִּבְעוֹת
The plural form carries the same hill-root into the surrounding landscape.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses dwelling to show how people are situated in a place, land, and community.
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.THE THREAD
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.The Hebrew root יָשַׁב (yāshav, to sit or settle) underlies “dwelt” in both passages. Genesis repeats the word to show two distinct settlements, while Chronicles compresses a household’s belonging into one place.
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