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1 Chronicles 1:17

in 1 Chronicles 1

The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.

KJV

The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.

This verse in 1 Chronicles 1

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation.

This site's exposition

The sons of Shem

on 1 Chronicles 1:17-27

Shem's line carries the second narrative flash: Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, kept from Gen 10:25 with its riddle intact and unexplained here as there. Then the list runs Arphaxad to Abram in the ten-name rhythm of the flood-to-Abraham line, and verse 27 lands the whole chapter's first movement in three words: Abram; the same is Abraham. Two thousand years of Genesis stand behind that semicolon.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

The great promise of the Messiah (says bishop Patrick) was translated from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Hebrew nation, who were entrusted, above all nations, with that sacred treasure, till the promise was performed and the Messiah had come, and then that nation was made not a people.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), contain the sacred line of Christ from Adam to Abraham, and are inserted in his pedigree, Luke iii. 34-38 , the order ascending as here it descends. This genealogy proves the falsehood of that reproach, As for this man, we know not whence he is.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth--The three sons of this patriarch are enumerated, partly because they were the founders of the new world, and partly because the fulfilment of Noah's prophecy (Ge 9:25-27) could not otherwise appear to have been verified.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the Jebusite, &c.--At 1Ch 1:14-17 the names are not those of individuals, but of people who all sprang from Canaan; and as several of them became extinct or were amalgamated with their brethren, their national appellations are given instead of the personal names of their ancestors.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

The sons of Shem. The list includes grandsons along with sons; for Uz, Hul, Gesher and Meshech were sons of Aram.
Radak: Provence, 1160–1235 · Radak on I Chronicles 1:17:1, via Sefaria, The Commentary of Radak to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary, by Yitzhak Berger, Brown University, 2007

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 1 further source is cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • בְּנֵ֣י[the] sons of

    beneiH11214930 times

  • שֵׁ֔םShem

    shemH803517 times

  • עֵילָ֣םElam

    ʾeilamH586728 times

  • וְאַשּׁ֔וּרand Asshur

    veashurH804151 times

  • וְאַרְפַּכְשַׁ֖דand Arphaxad

    vearpakhshadH7759 times

  • וְל֣וּדand Lud

    veludH3865

  • וַאֲרָ֑םand Aram

    vaaramH758143 times

  • וְע֥וּץand Uz

    veutzH5780

  • וְח֖וּלand Hul

    vechulH2343

  • וְגֶ֥תֶרand Gether

    vegeterH1666

  • וָמֶֽשֶׁךְ׃ סand Meshech

    vameshekhH4902

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Hosea 14:3

    Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

    it leads to

    • Psalms 10:14

      But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

    • Psalms 68:5

      A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.

    • Isaiah 31:1

      Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…

    • John 14:18

      I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

  • Through

    Isaiah 21:2

    A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 49:34

      This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

  • Through

    Numbers 23:7

    And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and…

    it leads to

    • Numbers 22:5–6

      he sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates in the land of his people. “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt,” said Balak. “They cover the…

    • Numbers 24:3

      and he lifted up an oracle, saying: “This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man whose eyes are open,

    • Deuteronomy 23:4

      For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Chronicles

Cedars Are Cut Down for the Jerusalem Temple, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Cedars Are Cut Down for the Jerusalem Temple, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.