What Does 2 Chronicles 11:20 Mean in the King James?
And after her he took Maachah the daughter of Absalom; which bare him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith.
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
Absalom and Shelomith share the ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m, wholeness) seed, making wholeness echo from Maachah’s ancestry to the last child named.
THE MEANING
Maachah’s place in this family line is visible through the four children she bears and their names. Abijah (אֲבִיָּה, Aviyah, “Yah is my father”) carries a claim about fatherhood, while Shelomith (שְׁלֹמִית, Shelomith, “peaceful, whole”) echoes the wholeness-root in her maternal grandfather’s name, Avshalom (אַבְשָׁלוֹם, Avshalom, “father of shalom, wholeness”). Birth and naming make this lineage present in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A family line belongs to the father alone; here Maachah is named as the one who bears the four children.
THE ROOT
שְׁלֹמִית
Shelomith
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
שְׁלֹמִית (Shelomith, “peaceful, whole”) carries the שלם (sh-l-m, wholeness) family found inside אַבְשָׁלוֹם (Avshalom, “father of shalom, wholeness”), the name of Maachah’s father. The shared consonants let wholeness sound across the generations named here.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the word-family echoed in both Shelomith and Avshalom.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
It makes the root’s sense of wholeness concrete beneath the names.
Avshalom: Father of shalom, wholeness.
אַבְשָׁלוֹם
His name appears in Maachah’s ancestry and shares the root carried by Shelomith.
וַתֵּלֶד
watteled
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear, bring forth, or beget.
“bare” in this verse is watteled. The Hebrew verb וַתֵּלֶד (watteled, “and she bore”) makes Maachah the one bringing forth these four named children. The same root grows into words for a child and for generations, connecting one birth to the longer unfolding of a family line.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The children in the verse are the direct outcome named by the verb’s root.
toledot: Generations, descendants, family origins.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch extends the act of bearing into the genealogies that preserve a family’s continuation.
THE PATTERN
A family line moves forward through birth and remains legible in the names it carries.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;THE THREAD
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.Both passages use וַתֵּלֶד (watteled, “and she bore”), from ילד (yalad, “bring forth”). The shared verb links Maachah’s named children with the first named birth in Genesis, where a family line begins to take shape.
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