I Chronicles 1:20

Misinterpretations often treat this verse as exhaustive trivia or irrelevant name-dropping, ignoring its theological role in validating Israel's heritage and God's selective preservation of lineages. Some allegorize names like Hazarmaveth ('court of death') as symbolic warnings of mortality rather than historical tribal identifiers, or attempt precise modern mappings to Arabian locations without accounting for the abbreviated, purposeful nature of biblical genealogies that prioritize covenant significance over comprehensive ethnography.

This verse lists four sons of Joktan—Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, and Jerah—as part of the genealogy tracing Shem's descendants in 1 Chronicles 1, emphasizing the proliferation of Semitic peoples after the flood. Joktan is traditionally linked to southern Arabian tribes, and such records underscore God's faithfulness in multiplying humanity through Noah's line while establishing the ancestral framework leading to Israel, affirming divine providence in history and covenant continuity.