Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 1:23
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Chronicler records a genealogical list tracing the descendants of Shem to Joktan and his sons. This passage functions as a structural marker within a broader ancestral catalog.
The words — The text lists three proper names—אוֹפִיר ('o.Fir, Ophir), חֲוִילָה (cha.vi.Lah, Havilah), and יוֹבָב (yo.Vav, Jobab)—connected by the conjunction וְ (ve, and). The phrase כָּל־אֵלֶּה (kol-'E.leh, all these) explicitly groups them as sons of Joktan.
The thread — These names reappear in Genesis 10:29 as Joktan’s sons and surface in Genesis 2:11 and 25:18 as geographical markers for Havilah and Ophir. The Chronicler aligns his ancestral record with the earlier Mosaic narrative.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of how tribal and territorial identities are preserved through precise lineage. It requires the reader to track how ancient names anchor both historical memory and later geographic references.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
Cross-references
- Genesis 2:11 The name of the first river is the Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
- Genesis 10:29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
- Genesis 25:18 Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.
- 1 Samuel 15:7 Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
- 1 Kings 9:28 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.
- 1 Kings 10:11 (The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir also brought from Ophir a great cargo of almug wood and precious stones.
- 1 Chronicles 29:4 three thousand talents of gold (the gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings,
- Job 22:24 and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,
- Psalms 45:9 The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.
- Isaiah 13:12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.