What Does Ezra 10:43 Mean?
Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.THE KEY
The roster begins with “sons” and ends with Benaiah, “Yah has built”, so lineage is framed by the language of formation.
THE MEANING
The line holds individual names inside a shared belonging: they are named one by one, then gathered as “sons of Nebo.” Its final name, Benaiah (בְּנָיָה, Bənāyāh, “Yah has built”), leaves the roster with an image of formation. The verse still speaks wherever a person’s name sits inside a larger story of belonging.
THE ROOT
בְּנָיָה
Bənāyāh
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, construct, establish
Benaiah carries the sense “Yah has built.” That name lands at the end of a line introduced as “sons,” making the roster’s language of lineage echo the language of building.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build, establish
בָּנָה
This verb names the action held inside Benaiah’s name.
binyan: building, structure
בִּנְיָן
This noun makes the same root’s architectural sense explicit.
THE PATTERN
Scripture describes households and communities as built through relationship and divine agency.
And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.And I also say to you, You are Peter, the stone, and upon this bedrock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.THE THREAD
And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, the LORD has held me shut from bearing. Go in, I pray you, to my handmaid. Perhaps I may be built through her. And Abram heard and responded to the voice of Sarai.The KJV renders the phrase as “obtain children,” while the Hebrew says “I may be built from her,” using בָּנָה (banah, “build”). This draws “sons” and the name Benaiah into the same image of a household being formed.
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