1 Chronicles 7:20–29, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Chronicles 7:20–29
Ephraim's line holds killing, mourning, Sheerah's building, and Joshua
Ephraim's genealogy breaks into a funeral
Ephraim's sons run Shuthelah, Bered, Tahath, Eladah, Tahath, Zabad, Shuthelah, then Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.
The list refuses to be only names. Cattle-raid violence, grief, and consolation are part of Joseph's memory. Mourners are not being blamed, and the raid is not being romanticized.
Beriah's name, Sheerah's towns, and Joshua's line
When he went in to his wife, she conceived and bare a son; he called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house. 'Went evil' names household calamity, not the child's morals. His daughter was Sherah, who built Beth-horon the nether and the upper, and Uzzen-sherah. The line then reaches Non and Jehoshua, with Josephite possessions: Beth-el, Naaran, Gezer, Shechem, and, on Manasseh's borders, Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor.
Sheerah is a named builder. Her towns carry her name. She is not a decorative daughter on the way to Joshua, not a fantasy biography, and not a modern title to those sites. Grief, a woman's construction work, and later settlement claims all remain in one unit.
How this should shape us
Tell Ephraim's story as the slain sons, the father's mourning, Beriah's painful name, Sheerah's building, and Joshua's ancestry together. Do not skip the woman who built, and do not convert her towns into a present property claim.
Teach it back
Explain 1 Chronicles 7:20–29 in your own words. Include its movement, placement in Chronicles, one Samuel-Kings comparison, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one modern use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The chronology relative to Exodus traditions and the textual witnesses for Sheerah's building differ. The recent proposal that the earliest inferable text names her as builder is plausible, not certain.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
1 Chronicles 7:20–29, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 7:20–29
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 7:20–29, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Supports: Complete article on the reuse of Genesis genealogies to negotiate a broad all-Israel identity after exile, used as a contextual proposal rather than an ethnic prescription.
Jonker, Old Testament Essays 25.2 (2012), pp. 316–333, especially pp. 316–323 and 328–331
Supports: Complete article tracing named and unnamed women, kinship functions, initiative, vulnerability, and postexilic significance in Chronicles' genealogies.
Olojede, Acta Theologica 33.1 (2013), pp. 158–174, especially pp. 161–173
Supports: Masoretic, Greek, Syriac, Latin, and reception evidence for Sheerah, construction language, and the limits of recovering the woman's precise historical role.
Snoek, Vetus Testamentum advance article (2026), 24 pages, complete published version on 1 Chronicles 7:24
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 7:20–29, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 7:20–29
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 7:20–29, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Reading the Pentateuch's Genealogies after the Exile: The Chronicler's Usage of Genesis 1-11 in Negotiating an All-Israelite Identity
Louis C. Jonker
Old Testament Essays 25(2), pp. 316-333, 2012
Supports: Complete article on the reuse of Genesis genealogies to negotiate a broad all-Israel identity after exile, used as a contextual proposal rather than an ethnic prescription.
Exact location: Jonker, Old Testament Essays 25.2 (2012), pp. 316–333, especially pp. 316–323 and 328–331
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Chronicler's Women: A Holistic Appraisal
Funlola Olojede
Acta Theologica 33(1), pp. 158-174, 2013
Supports: Complete article tracing named and unnamed women, kinship functions, initiative, vulnerability, and postexilic significance in Chronicles' genealogies.
Exact location: Olojede, Acta Theologica 33.1 (2013), pp. 158–174, especially pp. 161–173
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Did an Ephraimite Woman Build Cities? The Early and Recent Reception of 1 Chronicles 7:24
Doren G. Snoek
Vetus Testamentum, Advance Articles, 24 pages, 2026
Supports: Masoretic, Greek, Syriac, Latin, and reception evidence for Sheerah, construction language, and the limits of recovering the woman's precise historical role.
Exact location: Snoek, Vetus Testamentum advance article (2026), 24 pages, complete published version on 1 Chronicles 7:24
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility: Chronicles in Its Ancient Context
Isaac Kalimi
Poznan Theological Studies repository edition, pp. 7-25, 2019 repository edition
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Exact location: Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Open source ↗