What Does 1 Chronicles 9:9 Mean in the King James?
And their brethren, according to their generations, nine hundred and fifty and six. All these men were chief of the fathers in the house of their fathers.
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 word “generations” carries the sense of what has been brought forth, so this count holds a living lineage rather than a crowd of isolated names.
THE MEANING
You are part of a community whose life extends through households and generations; the count does not erase those ties. Its leaders are called “heads,” locating them within the family lines that carry the community forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a person is only an isolated unit, with no living connection to those who came before or those who follow.
THE ROOT
לְתֹלְדוֹתָם
le-toledotam
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
Beget, bear, bring forth.
“Generations” translates תּוֹלְדוֹתָם (toledotam, their generations), a form built from ילד (yalad, beget or bear). The word holds a lineage as what has been brought forth, so the 956 are a number within continuing kinship.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To beget or give birth.
יָלַד
The root makes the generations in this verse a line of lives brought forth.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
A child is one link in the family line named by “generations.”
moledet: Kindred, birthplace, or native land.
מוֹלֶדֶת
This branch joins birth to the family and place from which a person comes.
רָאשִׁים
roshim
GROWS FROM
ראש
r-ʾ-sh
Head, top, foremost point.
English “chief” can sound like a title, but רָאשִׁים (roshim, heads) retains the concrete image of headship. The root ראש (rosh, head or top) also names what is foremost, picturing these leaders as the household’s leading point.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head, chief, or top.
רֹאשׁ
This is the singular behind the verse’s plural “heads,” preserving the bodily image inside “chiefs.”
rishon: First or foremost.
רִאשׁוֹן
The same word family links headship with the foremost place in a household.
reshit: Beginning or first part.
רֵאשִׁית
What is at the head can also mark a beginning, joining leadership with the household’s continuing line.
THE PATTERN
A people’s identity is carried forward through the households and generations that hold its members in continuity.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;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.The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.THE THREAD
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;Both verses use תּוֹלְדוֹת (toledot, generations), from ילד (yalad, beget or bear). Genesis names a book of what is brought forth; Chronicles counts people within that same unfolding line.
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