1 Chronicles 8:31 — Word Study
WLCוּגְד֥וֹר וְאַחְי֖וֹ וָזָֽכֶר׃
BSAGedorGᵉdôr [a place in Palestine and a Benjamite] AhioʼAchyôw [a son of Jeiel of Gibeon] ZecherZeker△ [an Israelite from Benjamin, son of Jeiel and Maacah]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וּגְד֥וֹר | and Gedor | Conjunction, noun proper masculine |
| וְאַחְי֖וֹ | and Ahio | Conjunction, noun proper masculine |
| וָזָֽכֶר׃ | and Zeker | Conjunction, noun proper masculine |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Gedor, Ahio, Zecher, |
| KJV | And Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher. |
| ASV | and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zecher. |
| YLT | and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher; |
| WEB | Gedor, Ahio, Zecher, |
| BBE | And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth. |
All translations agree on the names listed in this verse.
The verse presents a simple list of names without additional clauses.
3 commentators on this verse
Jamieson, Ellicott, Cambridge & more — read them ›
clause
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
1 of 3 occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament — a word chosen on purpose.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — 1 Chronicles 8:31
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Genealogy of Benjamingenerated
1 Chronicles 8:31 lists the names of Gedor, Ahio, and Zeker as part of the genealogical record of the tribe of Benjamin. This passage emphasizes the lineage and heritage of the Israelites, connecting these individuals to the broader narrative of Israel's history. The context shows the importance of family ties and tribal affiliations in ancient Israel, as seen in the subsequent verses that continue the genealogy.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Chronicles 9:37 | Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 1 reference, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — גְּדוֹר, u.ge.Dorgenerated
The name גְּדוֹר (Gdor) means "wall" and refers to a town in the mountainous region of Judah, as well as three individuals from the tribe of Benjamin. The parsing as a proper noun indicates that it can refer to both a place and a person, highlighting its dual significance in the biblical narrative.
As a proper noun, Gedor appears in various genealogical contexts, emphasizing the importance of location and lineage in the identity of the Israelites. The connection to the root meaning 'inclosure' suggests a fortified place, which may have historical implications for the tribe of Benjamin.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
The verse is rendered consistently across translations, with all versions identifying the names Gedor, Ahio, and Zeker.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The structure of the verse is straightforward, presenting a list of names governed by a conjunction. The finite verb is absent, as the focus is on naming individuals: וּגְד֥וֹר (and Gedor), וְאַחְי֖וֹ (and Ahio), וָזָֽכֶר׃ (and Zeker).
This list format emphasizes the importance of each name in the genealogy, highlighting their collective identity as part of the tribe of Benjamin.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates גְּדוֹר as γεδουρ, maintaining the connection to the original Hebrew name. This choice reflects the translators' intent to preserve the identity of the place and individuals.
The use of ἀδελφὸς for אַחְיוֹ emphasizes the familial ties inherent in the name, aligning with the Hebrew meaning of 'brotherly'.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
1 Chronicles 8:31 lists three names: Gedor, Ahio, and Zeker, as part of the genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin. These names connect to the history and heritage of Israel, showing the importance of family and tribal identity.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
The names represent individuals from the tribe of Benjamin, highlighting their lineage and connection to Israel's history.
Genealogies establish heritage, identity, and the fulfillment of God's promises through specific lineages.
They were individuals from the tribe of Benjamin, noted for their familial connections in the genealogical record.
It connects to the history of Israel, emphasizing the importance of tribes and family lines in God's plan for His people.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What can we learn from the genealogies about the importance of family and heritage in our own lives?
- How do the names in this verse reflect the identity of the tribe of Benjamin?
- In what ways can we honor our own family histories and legacies?
- How does understanding genealogies enhance our reading of the Bible?
Commentators on this verse — 3 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on 1 Chronicles 8:31 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryAnd at Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon; whose wife's name was Maachah: No JFB commentary on these verses.
Read Robert Jamieson on 1 Chronicles 8 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(31) Ahio.—The recurrence of this name here lends some support to the Authorised Version in 1 Chronicles 8:14. Zacher.—Heb., Zecher (comp. Shamer-Shemer), the Zechariah of 1 Chronicles 9:37, which is in fact the full form of the name. Such abbreviations are common. (See 1 Chronicles 5:26, Note.) After Zecher, the phrase and Mikloth has dropped out of the text, because 1 Chronicles 8:32 begins with the same words. (See 1 Chronicles 9:33.)
Read Charles John Ellicott on 1 Chronicles 8 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges31. and Zacher] Read with 1 Chronicles 9:37, and Zechariah, and Mikloth, the latter name having probably fallen out through homœoteleuton.
Read Cambridge on 1 Chronicles 8 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Gedor, Ahio, Zecher,
Gedor, Ahio, Zecher,
Gedor, Ahio, Zecher,
Gedor, Ahio, Zeker, and Mikloth.
Tyndale line
And Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher.
and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zecher.
and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zecher.
And Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher.
And Gidor, and Ahio, and Zacher.
Strictly literal
and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zecher.
and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher;
and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher;
And Gedor, and Achyo, and Zecher.
Gedor, Ahio, and Zeker.
From the Latin
And Gedor, and Ahio, and Zacher, and Macelloth:
Simplified
Gedor, Ahio, Zeker,
And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text lists the names as וּגְד֥וֹר וְאַחְי֖וֹ וָזָֽכֶר׃ (Gedor, Ahio, Zecher). The Septuagint agrees with this reading, matching all three names in its word-by-word correspondence, though the order and articles differ as per its own style. There are no significant differences noted in the Samaritan Pentateuch or the Dead Sea Scrolls for this verse, confirming the consistency across these ancient witnesses.
וּגְד֥וֹר וְאַחְי֖וֹ וָזָֽכֶר׃
3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in 1 Chronicles 8:31
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
גְּדוֹר (Gdor) means "wall" and refers to a town in the mountainous region of Judah, located a few miles north of Hebron. It is also the name of three individuals from the tribe of Benjamin. The word is derived from a root meaning "inclosure" and is associated with the biblical context of Gedor as a place and a personal name.
גְּדוֹר, גְּדֹר n.pr. (wall)
n.pr.loc. city of Judah
n.pr.loc. but read Gerar
n.pr.m. a Benjamite, of Gibeon
base
H1446 גְּדוֹר, גְּדֹר, גְדֹר
1446 Gdor ghed-ore'
or (fully) Gdowr {ghed-ore'}; from 1443; inclosure; Gedor, a
place in Palestine; also the name of three Israelites:--Gedor.
see HEBREW for 01443
גְּדוֹר (ge.dor) — Gedor.
Gedor = "wall"
a town in the mountainous part of Judah a few miles north of Hebron
Also named: ge.der (גֶּ֫דֶר "Geder" H1445)
גְּדוֹר (ge.dor) — Gedor.
§ Gedor = "wall"
a town
גְּדוֹר (ge.dor) — Gedor.
A man of the tribe of Benjamin living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Ch.8.31;
son of: Abiel (H0022) and Maacah (H4601N);
brother of: Kish (H7027), Ner (H5369), Abdon (H5658J), Zur (H6698I), Baal (H1168B), Nadab (H5070J), Ahio (H0283I), Zecher (H2144) and Mikloth (H4732)
§ Gedor = "wall"
1) a son of Penuel
2) a son of Jered
3) a Benjamite of Gibeon
4) a town in the mountainous part of Judah a few miles north of Hebron
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun proper masculineHC/Npm
ge'-dor (gedhor; Codex Vaticanus, Geddor, Codex Alexandrinus, Gedor):
(1) A town in the mountains of Judah, named with Halhul and Beth-zur (Jos 15:58). It seems to be referred to by Eusebius as Gadeira (Onomasticon, under the word), which he identifies with Gaidora (Jerome calls it Gadora), a village in the borders of Jerusalem, near the terebinth. It is probably represented today by Khirbet Jedur, about 7 miles North of Hebron (PEF, III, 313, Sh XXI).
(2) Among the Benjamites who joined David at Ziklag were the sons of Jeroham of Gedor (1Ch 12:7). No trace of this name is found in the territory of Benjamin. It may be identical with (1).
(3) The Simeonites are said to have gone to the entering in of Gedor in search of pasture for their flocks. They smote and expelled the Meunim…
Gedor
A wall. (1.) A city in the mountains or hill country of Judah (Josh. 15:58), identified with Jedar, between Jerusalem and Hebron.
(2.) 1 Chr. 4:39, the Gederah of Josh. 15:36, or the well-known Gerar, as the LXX. read, where the patriarchs of old had sojourned and fed their flocks (Gen. 20:1, 14, 15; 26:1, 6, 14).
(3.) A town apparently in Benjamin (1 Chr. 12:7), the same probably as Geder (Josh. 12:13).
(a wall), a town int he mountainous part of Judah, (Joshua 15:58) a few miles north of Hebron. Robinson discovered a Jedur halfway between Bethlehem and Hebron, about two miles west of the road.
The Hebrew word אַחְיוֹ (*Achyow*) means 'brotherly' or 'fraternal' and refers to several individuals named Ahio in the Old Testament. It is derived from a root meaning 'brother' and is associated with three different men from the tribes of Benjamin and Levi, notably the son of Abinadab who cared for the ark. The entries consistently highlight these familial connections.
אַחְיוֹ n.pr.m. (fraternal)
a son of Aminadab, brother of Uzzah
a Benjamite
a Benjamite
base
H283 אַחְיוֹ
283 'Achyow akh-yo'
prolonged from 251; brotherly; Achio, the name of three
Israelites:--Ahio.
see HEBREW for 0251
אַחְיוֹ (ach.yo) — Ahio.
A man living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 2Sa.6.3;
son of: Abinadab (H0041);
brother of: Eleazar (H0499H) and Uzzah (H5798A)
§ Ahio = "brotherly" or "fraternal"
1) son of Abinadab who sheltered the ark
2) a Benjamite
3) another Benjamite of Saul's ancestry
אַחְיוֹ (ach.yo) — Ahio.
A man of the tribe of Benjamin living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, only mentioned at 1Ch.8.14;
son of: Beriah (H1283I);
brother of: Arad (H6166B), Shashak (H8349), Jeremoth (H3406I), Zebadiah (H2069), Eder (H5738), Michael (H4317L), Ishpah (H3472) and Joha (H3109)
§ Ahio = "brotherly" or "fraternal"
1) son of Abinadab who sheltered the ark
2) a Benjamite
3) another Benjamite of Saul's ancestry
אַחְיוֹ (ach.yo) — Ahio.
A man of the tribe of Benjamin living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Ch.8.31;
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun proper masculineHC/Npm
a-hi'-o ('achyo, variously explained as "his brother," "brotherly," "brother of Yahweh," "my brother is Yah"): Proper names containing a similar form of the name of Yahweh are found on the ostraca recently exhumed at Samaria. The word is always treated as a common noun in the ordinary Greek copies, being rendered either "brother" or "brothers," or "his brother" or "his brothers"; but this is probably to be taken as an instance of the relative inferiority of the Greek text as compared with the Massoretic Text. See OSTRACA.
(1) One of the sons of Beriah, the son of Elpaal, the son of Shaharaim and Hushim, reckoned among the families of Benjamin (1Ch 8:14). Beriah and Shema are described as `ancestral heads' "of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath."
Ahio
Brotherly. (1.) One of the sons of Beriah (1 Chr. 8:14).
(2.) One of the sons of Jehiel the Gibeonite (1 Chr. 8:31; 9:37).
(3.) One of the sons of Abinadab the Levite. While Uzzah went by the side of the ark, he walked before it guiding the oxen which drew the cart on which it was carried, after having brought it from his father’s house in Gibeah (1 Chr. 13:7; 2 Sam. 6:3, 4).
(brotherly). Son of Abinadab, who accompanied the ark when it was brought out of his father’s house. (2 Samuel 6:3,4; 1 Chronicles 13:7) (B.C.1043.) A Benjamite, one of the sons of Beriah. (1 Chronicles 8:14) A Benjamite, Son of Jehiel. (1 Chronicles 8:31; 9:37)
A son of Abinadab, who went before the ark of God on its way to Jerusalem from his father’s house; thus escaping the fate of Uzzah his brother, 2Sa 6:3-7.
זֶ֫כֶר (ze.kher) refers to an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin, first mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:31. He is identified as the son of Abiel and Maacah, and has several brothers. The name is also associated with the meaning 'remembrance' and is linked to the name Zechariah.
[זֶ֫כֶר] n.pr.m. only 1 Ch 8:31
ref
H2144 זֶ֫כֶר
2144 Zeker zeh'-ker
the same as 2143; Zeker, an Israelite:--Zeker.
see HEBREW for 02143
זֶ֫כֶר (ze.kher) — Zecher.
A man of the tribe of Benjamin living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Ch.8.31;
son of: Abiel (H0022) and Maacah (H4601N);
brother of: Kish (H7027), Ner (H5369), Abdon (H5658J), Zur (H6698I), Baal (H1168B), Nadab (H5070J), Gedor (H1446I), Ahio (H0283I) and Mikloth (H4732); also called Zechariah at 1Ch.9.37;
Also named: ze.khar.yah (זְכַרְיָהוּ "Zechariah" H2148x)
§ Zacher = "remembrance"
a Gibeonite
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun proper masculineHC/Npm