What Does Ezra 2:29 Mean?
The children of Nebo, fifty-two.
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
The children of Nebo, fifty and two.THE KEY
Restoration becomes visible one community at a time: even fifty-two people are counted by the place they belong to.
THE MEANING
A community appears here as a real, countable body: fifty-two people held together by the name of their place. The line gives you a picture of restoration at human scale, where belonging remains visible even when the number is small.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a small group is too slight to matter dissolves here: fifty-two still have a place in the restored community’s account.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
To build or establish; ben, “son” or “child,” is associated with this root.
The Hebrew phrase means “children of Nebo,” and can identify a community by its place of belonging. Its connection to the build-root adds a quiet layer: these people are part of a community being built again.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son; child
בֵּן
The singular form behind בְּנֵי keeps the group tied to family and belonging.
banah: to build; establish
בָּנָה
This branch echoes the way a counted community contributes to a larger whole being established.
THE PATTERN
Restoration gathers scattered people into visible belonging, rebuilding a community through those who return.
Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your seed from the sunrise, and gather you from the sunset.The LORD builds Jerusalem; he gathers the driven-out of Israel.To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.THE THREAD
The LORD builds Jerusalem; he gathers the driven-out of Israel.Ezra calls this group בְּנֵי (bənê, children), a form associated with בנה (banah, build). Psalm 147 uses the same build-root for Jerusalem: the people counted in Ezra are part of the community being built again.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us