What Does Genesis 36:23 Mean in the King James?
And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
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 “children” also carries the image of building: Shobal’s lineage is what is built forward through named branches.
THE MEANING
Your life belongs to a continuing structure: what is carried forward has names and distinct branches. This verse keeps Shobal’s children individually visible, even while their stories remain unspoken.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
benei
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build
“children” in this verse is benei. Alongside its sense of descendants, the word is connected with building. Shobal’s line is presented as a structure carried forward through distinct, named branches.
ALSO GROWS
ben: A son or child; a descendant in the family line.
בֵּן
The descendant is named as part of what the family line builds forward.
banah: To build or establish.
בָּנָה
This verb makes the building image in the word-family clear.
binyan: A building or structure.
בִּנְיָן
It gives a concrete form to the image of lineage as something built.
מְנַחַת
Mənāḥat
GROWS FROM
נוח
to settle or rest
Manahath is understood as a resting place and is linked to the root for settling or resting. The name places rest among the names carried in this family line, though the verse leaves its story unspoken.
ALSO GROWS
Noach: Rest or settling.
נֹחַ
The name Noah is associated with this same root of rest.
menuchah: A place of rest or repose.
מְנוּחָה
It shares the sense of a settled place carried in the name Manahath.
THE PATTERN
A genealogy makes family continuity visible by naming its branches.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;And Abraham begat Isaac. The sons of Isaac; Esau and Israel.The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.THE THREAD
And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.Rachel’s “have children” renders the Hebrew וְאִבָּנֶה (ve’ibbaneh, “I may be built”), from בנה (banah, “to build”). That same building connection sits behind “children” here, presenting a lineage as something built forward through descendants.
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