1 Chronicles 1:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וָיָֽפֶת

Yepheth

H3315

“and · Japheth”

Conjunction + Noun, Proper

Appears 11× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 5:32

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6601

TWOT: None

Japheth = "opened" - the 3rd son of Noah whose descendants after the flood settled on the coastal lands of the Mediterranean spreading north into Europe and parts of Asia

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

4: words
4: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וָיָֽפֶת Japheth H3315 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וָיָֽפֶת Japheth H3315 occurs in 11 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 nouns

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 5 words from the Hebrew and 8 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 4 Hebrew tokens and 6 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 1 Chronicles 1:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 5:32 Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 9:18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.
Genesis 6:8–10 But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.
Genesis 7:1 Yahweh said to Noah, "Come with all of your household into the ark, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
Genesis 9:29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, then he died.
Isaiah 54:9–10 For this is [as] the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
Ezekiel 14:14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord Yahweh.
Matthew 24:37–38 "As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Luke 3:36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
Luke 17:26 As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
2 Peter 2:5 and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 1 Chronicles 1:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

נֹ֥חַ שֵׁ֖ם חָ֥ם וָיָֽפֶת

Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Chronicles 1:4 Septuagint · lemma form

νωε υἱός νωε σημ χαμ ιαφεθ

Noe: the sons of Noe, Sem, Cham, Japheth.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on 1 Chronicles 1:4 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Ver. 4. Shem, Ham, Japheth.] Of these three, Shem is supposed to have peopled the east, Ham the south, Japheth the north.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

It had been sufficient to have named Shem of whom came Abraham and David, but because the world was restored by these three, mention is also made of Ham and Japheth.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

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 (Gen 9:25-27) could not otherwise appear to have been verified.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Shem, Ham, and Japheth.—There is no doubt that Ham means black, or sunburnt, and Japheth (Heb., Yepheth) is probably the fair-skinned. Shem has been compared with an Assyrian word meaning brownish (sa’mu). Thus the three names appear to allude to differences of racial complexion.

1Ch_1:5-23 are an abridgment of Genesis 10. The proper names represent, not persons, but peoples and countries. By adding them all together, the old Jewish interpreters made a total of seventy nations for the world. The list is a classified summary of the ethnical and geographical knowledge of Hebrew antiquity.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Noe begot Sem, Cham, and Japheth. (Haydock) See Genesis x. The author passes lightly over some of the descendants of the two latter, as he had David’s genealogy principally in view.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Formerly he mentions only one son, but here he names and treats of Noah’s three sons, partly because they were all the founders of the new world, and partly because the accomplishment of Noah’s famous prophecy, Gen 9:25-27, could not otherwise appear, but by the account of their several posterities.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

Noah, Shem, Ham He should have counted the sons of Shem immediately to find the pearl, namely Abraham, etc., until David, but he mentions the unimportant one and treats his lineage briefly and takes hold of the main ones; and so is the method of all this genealogy of Chronicles, and so it is in the section immediately following (verses 28f.): “The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. These are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael was Nebaioth.” And so: (verses 34f.): “And Abraham begot Isaac; the sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel; the sons of Esau: Eliphaz,” where he mentions first the lineage of the unimportant ones and afterwards the main one.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

1 Chronicles, in the Historical, opens this verse with 4 words (4 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Yepheth (“Japheth”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Japheth” (Yepheth) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 5:32 shares the word «Japheth» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 4 Hebrew ↔ 6 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 1 word in this verse.
4 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 4 words in this verse.