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1 Chronicles9:8

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1 Chronicles 9:8 — . Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

8

Ibneiah son of Jeroham; Elah son of Uzzi, the son of Michri; Meshullam son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·yiḇ·nə·yāh ben- yə·rō·ḥām wə·’ê·lāh ḇen- ‘uz·zî ben- miḵ·rî ū·mə·šul·lām ben- šə·p̄aṭ·yāh ben- rə·‘ū·’êl ben- yiḇ·nî·yāh

Word by word15 · parsed
וְיִבְנְיָה֙wə·yiḇ·nə·yāhIbneiahH2997
√ Yibnᵉyâh — Jibnejah, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Yibnᵉyâh: Jibnejah, an Israelite Strong's gives only the bare identification, but Ellicott reads the form as a theophoric sentence-name meaning "Jah buildeth," i.e. makes offspring, and compares the Assyrian Ea-Ibni. That matters for what this chapter is doing: a list of men resettled in Jerusalem after the exile opens with a name that says the house was built by the LORD, not by the returning clans. The same element yāh is audible on the surface here, in šə·p̄aṭ·yāh, and in yiḇ·nî·yāh at the verse's close.
בֶּן־ben-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bên: a son (as a builder of the family name) Construct state: the word leans forward onto the next name, carries no article and has no independent stress, which is why the Hebrew can chain five of them across one verse without a single pause. Strong's own parenthesis is worth hearing in a chapter about resettling a ruined city: a son is a builder of the family name, and the gloss stretches to grandson, descendant, subject, nation, even a quality or condition. The genealogist's smallest and most repeated word is therefore doing the same work as the largest name in the verse.
יְרֹחָ֔םyə·rō·ḥāmof JerohamH3395
√ Yᵉrôchâm — Jerocham, the name of seven or eight IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉrôchâm: the name of seven or eight Israelites The Verifier finds this lexeme in only ten verses, and Strong's itself warns that those ten cover seven or eight distinct men. Ellicott ties this Jeroham to 1 Chronicles 8:27, arguing his sons lived in Jerusalem before the exile as well as after it, which would make the name a thread of continuity across the captivity rather than a new post-exilic arrival.
וְאֵלָ֥הwə·’ê·lāhElahH425
√ ʼÊlâh — Elah, the name of an Edomite, of four Israelites, and also of a place in PalestineConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼÊlâh: Elah, an Edomite, four Israelites, and a place Ellicott proposes that this Elah is the "Joel son of Zikri" of Nehemiah 11:9, since Elah may be a worn-down Elijah, lacking only yod, the smallest Hebrew letter. That is a conjecture about orthography, not a datum; it is offered here as his reasoning, not as a fact of the text.
בֶן־ḇen-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bên: a son Construct, unpointed with the article; the English "the son" is supplied.
עֻזִּ֖י‘uz·zîof UzziH5813
√ ʻUzzîy — Uzzi, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
ʻUzzîy: the name of six Israelites One of six men so called in Scripture; Strong's supplies no meaning for the name, and none is invented here. The Verifier returns no cross-reference candidate on this lexeme, on H4381 (Michri), or on H425 (Elah), nor on H8203 (Shephatiah), so more than half the names in this verse link outward to nothing at all. That silence is part of the verse's honest shape.
בֶּן־ben-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
מִכְרִ֑יmiḵ·rîof MichriH4381
√ Mikrîy — Mikri, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
Mikrîy: Mikri, an Israelite The Verifier surfaces no other verse sharing this lexeme, which fits, though it does not prove, Ellicott's suspicion of a copying slip for Zichri, a name that does recur in the Benjamite lists of 1 Chronicles 8. A single-attestation proper name is the easiest kind of word for a scribe's eye to blur, and the honest position is that we cannot decide it from this verse alone.
וּמְשֻׁלָּם֙ū·mə·šul·lāmMeshullamH4918
√ Mᵉshullâm — Meshullam, the name of seventeen IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Mᵉshullâm: the name of seventeen Israelites Seventeen different Israelites carry this name, and two of them stand within a few verses of each other here: the Meshullam who is Sallu's father in v. 7 and this Meshullam who is a head in his own right. The Verifier records the lexeme again at 1 Chronicles 9:12, in the priestly section of the same chapter. The recurrence is a caution against reading any one name as an identification.
בֶּן־ben-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
שְׁפַטְיָ֔הšə·p̄aṭ·yāhof ShephatiahH8203
√ Shᵉphaṭyâh — Shephatjah, the name of ten IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Shᵉphaṭyâh: the name of ten Israelites Another yāh name in a verse that is dense with them; ten Israelites bear it. Gill notes that of these three heads, Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam, we have no mention elsewhere, so the pedigree in this verse is all we are given of them.
בֶּן־ben-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
רְעוּאֵ֖לrə·‘ū·’êlof ReuelH7467
√ Rᵉʻûwʼêl — Reuel, the name of Moses' father-in-law, also of an Edomite and an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
Rᵉʻûwʼêl: Moses' father-in-law, also an Edomite and an Israelite Strong's own entry carries the warning inside it: this name belongs to Moses' father-in-law (Exodus 2:18; Numbers 10:29), to a son of Esau (Genesis 36:4), and to this Benjamite. At least three unrelated men, one lexeme, and Strong's says so in the entry itself. The genealogist is not claiming any of those connections, and neither should a reader.
בֶּן־ben-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bên: a son, in the widest sense The fifth and last link in the verse's chain.
יִבְנִיָּֽה׃yiḇ·nî·yāhof IbnijahH2998
√ Yibnîyâh — Jibnijah, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
Yibnîyâh: Jibnijah, an Israelite A distinct Strong's number from H2997 at the verse's head, yet Ellicott holds the two to be much the same name with the same sense. If he is right, the verse is framed at both ends by a confession that the LORD builds: the first house named and the last ancestor named say the same thing. Cambridge records the flat fact that Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam are simply not in Nehemiah 11, which is where any harmonizing has to start.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Three Benjamite heads, named and no more — 1 Chronicles 9:8

The verse gives three men and their fathers: וְיִבְנְיָה֙ son of Jeroham, וְאֵלָ֥ה son of Uzzi son of Michri, וּמְשֻׁלָּם֙ son of Shephatiah son of Reuel son of Ibnijah. K&D count the heads of Benjamin here as four, with Sallu from v. 7, and observe how uneven the pedigrees are: three generations for the first and fourth, one for the second, two for the third. Gill is blunter about what we know of them: with two more, whose ancestors are given, there is no mention of them elsewhere. Cambridge records the same silence from the other direction, noting that Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam are not in Nehemiah 11. ⚙ So the verse is, on its own terms, a list of men about whom the canon says nothing further. That is the sourced situation, and no amount of commentary closes it.

ii. The parallel in Nehemiah, and how far it can be pressed — 1 Chronicles 9:8

Ellicott aligns 1 Chronicles 9:7-9 with Nehemiah 11:7-9 and then works hard to make the two lists agree, suggesting that Nehemiah's Gabbai may conceal a contracted Ibni and that Sallai may have arisen out of Shallum or Meshullam, and that Nehemiah's Joel son of Zikri may be this Elah son of Uzzi. He is candid that the reconstruction depends on those combinations being accepted. Barnes declines the harmonizing and proposes instead that both writers drew from a common and fuller document, selecting different names and compressing by different omissions. K&D simply state the divergence: of the four Benjamite heads only Sallu appears in Nehemiah, and even there the ancestors differ. JFB, covering the chapter, grants that almost all the names recur in Nehemiah although there are differences. ⚙ Three named scholars, three different strategies, one shared admission that the lists do not line up on their face. This unit records the disagreement rather than choosing a winner.

iii. A name that says who built the house — 1 Chronicles 9:8

Ellicott's one piece of philology carries more weight than the harmonizing. וְיִבְנְיָה֙ and יִבְנִיָּֽה׃ are, he says, much the same name, and both mean "Jah buildeth," that is, makes offspring; he compares the Assyrian Ea-Ibni. ⚙ The verse therefore opens and closes on a confession, and the men between are listed as sons, בֶּן־, whose Strong's gloss is itself "a son, as a builder of the family name." Henry, commenting on the chapter as a whole, says these genealogies were recorded to direct the Jews returning from captivity with whom to unite and where to reside, and that every one knew his charge; his summary line is that God is the God of order. ⚙ Order and building are the same claim from two angles: the register exists because the LORD is assembling a people back onto named ground, and the first name in the list says He is the one doing the building.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the machine's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. A verse like this one is where a reader's real doctrine of Scripture shows. There is no command here, no promise, no narrative turn: five occurrences of בֶּן־ and nine proper names, three of which, on Gill's account, appear nowhere else in the canon. The temptation is to skip it, or to redeem it by decoding the names into a message. Both are evasions. What the verse actually does is take three men whose lives are otherwise unrecorded and write them into the register of those who came back and dwelt in Jerusalem. Henry's observation about the chapter holds here: the point was practical, so that returning exiles knew with whom to unite and where to reside. ⚙ The honest theological weight, then, is not in the etymologies but in the act of registering. Scripture spends a verse of itself on men it will never mention again, and the only thing it insists on is their fathers' names and their place. Ellicott's gloss on the first and last name, "Jah buildeth," is not a hidden code; it is the ordinary Israelite habit of naming a child after what God does, and it happens to frame the verse at both ends. If that framing is providential rather than accidental, the verse quietly says that the house being rebuilt in Jerusalem was not the returnees' achievement. That reading is offered under correction: the frame is real in the Hebrew, the theological weight I put on it is mine. The pull-quote set beside this unit, that a register is a doctrine and the LORD builds the house before He writes down who is in it, is my own summarizing line and is not a verse of Scripture; nothing in 1 Chronicles 9:8 says it in those words.

A register is a doctrine: the LORD builds the house, and then writes down who is in it.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Meshullam and Jeroham again, four verses later, in another order structural / thematic: confirmed

The Verifier finds two of this verse's lexemes recurring at 1 Chronicles 9:12, inside the priestly section of the same chapter: מְשֻׁלָּם (H4918) and יְרֹחָם (H3395). ⚙ The recurrence is not an identification. Strong's records seventeen Israelites named Meshullam and seven or eight named Jeroham, and the two occurrences here sit in different orders of the returning community, lay Benjamite and priestly. What the link does show is how tightly the chapter reuses a small stock of names, which is precisely the condition that makes Ellicott's and Barnes's harmonizing attempts so difficult to settle.

1 Chronicles 9:12

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4918 Mᵉshullâm (in 25 vv) and H3395 Yᵉrôchâm (in 10 vv). Both are common proper nouns within the same register chapter, so the basis supports a shared pattern of naming, not a quotation and not an identification of persons.

The Benjamite Jeroham before the exile structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott sends the reader from this Jeroham to 1 Chronicles 8:27, where the name stands in the Benjamite genealogy of the pre-exilic chapter, and argues that the sons of Jeroham dwelt in Jerusalem before the exile as well as after it. The Verifier independently records the shared lexeme יְרֹחָם (H3395) at that reference. ⚙ If Ellicott is right, the link is one of the few visible seams between chapter 8's old Jerusalem and chapter 9's restored one. If he is wrong, it is only a repeated clan name. The shared lexeme is certain; the continuity of household is his inference.

1 Chronicles 8:27

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H3395 Yᵉrôchâm (in 10 vv), linking the Benjamite lists of 1 Chronicles 8 and 9. A real verbal recurrence of a proper noun within a shared genealogical pattern; it carries no quotation claim and does not by itself prove one household.

One name, three unrelated men: Reuel structural / thematic: confirmed

Strong's entry for רְעוּאֵל (H7467) names Moses' father-in-law, an Edomite, and an Israelite in a single breath, and the Verifier duly finds the lexeme at Exodus 2:18, Numbers 10:29 and Genesis 36:4. ⚙ The Reuel in this verse is a Benjamite ancestor and none of those men. The thread is included precisely as a discipline: shared Strong's numbers across proper nouns establish that a name recurs, never that a person does. That caution governs every genealogical link in this unit, including the ones a commentator presses harder than the data allows.

Exodus 2:18 · Numbers 10:29 · Genesis 36:4

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H7467 Rᵉʻûwʼêl (in 10 vv) at Exodus 2:18, Numbers 10:29 and Genesis 36:4. The lexeme link is confirmed; Strong's own gloss records that it covers distinct persons, so no identification is claimed.

Another Jeroham, in the hill country of Ephraim structural / thematic: confirmed

The same rare-ish lexeme יְרֹחָם (H3395) stands at 1 Samuel 1:1, where Jeroham is an ancestor of Elkanah and so of Samuel, and again at 1 Chronicles 6:27 and 6:34 in the Levitical line. ⚙ Ten verses in the whole canon carry this name, and Strong's assigns them to seven or eight different men, so the resonance is literary rather than familial: a name borne in the Levitical, Ephraimite and Benjamite lines alike. Nothing here supports merging the lists.

1 Samuel 1:1 · 1 Chronicles 6:27 · 1 Chronicles 6:34

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H3395 Yᵉrôchâm (in 10 vv). Low frequency, but a proper noun that Strong's expressly distributes among seven or eight distinct Israelites, so it is tiered structural rather than verbal.

The Nehemiah parallel, and a harmonization that is not proven flagged: verify source

Ellicott holds that 1 Chronicles 9:7-9 corresponds to Nehemiah 11:7-9, and rescues the correspondence by proposing that Gabbai conceals a contracted form of Ibneiah, that Sallai arose out of Shallum or Meshullam, and that Joel son of Zikri is this Elah son of Uzzi son of Michri; he then counts five Benjamite clans in each list. K&D read the same two passages and find only Sallu in common, with different ancestors. Cambridge states simply that Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam are not mentioned in Nehemiah 11. Barnes cuts a third way, positing a common and fuller document behind both. The Verifier's own contribution is narrow: it confirms the shared lexeme יְרֹחָם (H3395) at Nehemiah 11:12, which sits in the priestly part of Nehemiah's list, not in the Benjamite verses under dispute. ⚙ The provenance of the proposed equivalences is therefore contested among the named sources, and this unit flags rather than asserts them.

Nehemiah 11:8 · Nehemiah 11:12

basis: Contested among the sources: Ellicott's equations (Gabbai = Ibneiah, Sallai = Meshullam, Joel son of Zikri = Elah) are his own conjecture, which K&D and Cambridge do not accept. The Verifier confirms only H3395 Yᵉrôchâm (in 10 vv) at Nehemiah 11:12, a verse outside the disputed Benjamite section, so the textual basis does not carry the harmonization.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

Jah buildeth: the name at both ends of the verse novel

Ellicott glosses the first and last names of this verse, וְיִבְנְיָה֙ and יִבְנִיָּֽה׃, as "Jah buildeth," that is, makes offspring, and Strong's gloss on בֶּן־ is a son as a builder of the family name. ⚙ Building a house is one of the covenant's load-bearing figures: the LORD promises David that He will build him a house and that David's son will build a house for His name, and the psalmist answers that unless the LORD builds the house its builders labor in vain. A post-exilic register of who came back to Jerusalem is, on its face, a record of men rebuilding a ruined city; the name that opens and closes the verse assigns the work to God. In the Gospel that figure receives a named builder: Christ says He will build His assembly. ⚙ The general covenant theme of divine house-building is ancient and widely held; the specific move from these two Benjamite names to Matthew 16:18 is this tool's own, and is marked novel for that reason.

2 Samuel 7:13 · Psalm 127:1 · Matthew 16:18

The register of the returned and the book of life ancient/widely-held

Henry, on this chapter, says the genealogies were recorded to direct the Jews returning out of captivity with whom to unite and where to reside, and that the temple whose service they resumed was a figure of the heavenly one, where they rest not day nor night from praising God, citing Revelation 4:8; he ends by asking that the Lord make each of us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. ⚙ That is the older and better-attested line to Christ from a verse like this. A written register of names, kept by God, of those restored to the city, is the Old Testament's ordinary shape for what the New Testament calls rejoicing that your names are written in heaven, the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and the book of life of the Lamb. Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam appear nowhere else in Scripture, as Gill notes; the register is the whole of their memorial, and that is exactly the consolation the figure offers. ⚙ The typology of the restored city and its enrolled citizens pointing to the heavenly Jerusalem is ancient and widely held, and Henry states it here in his own words.

Luke 10:20 · Hebrews 12:23 · Revelation 21:27

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)

Text: BSB for 1 Chronicles 9:8, with the Berean interlinear supplying fifteen word slots, nine proper nouns and five occurrences of the construct בֶּן־. Every parse, Strong's number and lexical gloss used above comes from that interlinear and from Strong's; where Strong's gives only an identification (Uzzi, Michri, Meshullam, Shephatiah), no meaning has been supplied, because none is sourced. The one etymology asserted here, "Jah buildeth" for Ibneiah and Ibnijah, is Ellicott's, quoted from him and not independently verified; the parallel observation that the yāh element is audible in three of the verse's names is an observation of the transliterated surface forms and is marked as machine synthesis.

Uncertain: the relation of this verse to Nehemiah 11:7-9. Ellicott harmonizes by conjectural emendation of Nehemiah's Gabbai and Sallai; Barnes posits a lost common source; K&D and Cambridge record the divergence without resolving it. This unit does not choose among them, and the corresponding thread is badged flagged rather than confirmed. Ellicott's suggestion that Michri should perhaps be Zichri is likewise his proposal, not a manuscript reading reported in the brief. Poole has no note on this verse, and Geneva's entry is the verse text itself with no gloss, so neither could be quoted; the unit therefore draws on Ellicott, Gill, Keil and Delitzsch, and Barnes, with Henry, JFB and Cambridge cited by name in the commentary. All cross-references in this unit are Hebrew to Hebrew proper-noun recurrences computed by the Verifier, and none of them establishes that two bearers of a name are the same man.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)