What Does Ezra 2:33 Mean?
The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five.
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 Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty and five.THE KEY
Restoration takes shape town by town, as named communities become visible in the count.
THE MEANING
This verse makes belonging concrete: people are counted as a community rooted in a particular place. Their return is part of a larger whole, while their distinct identity remains visible.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build, establish.
The word for “children” is traditionally linked to the root meaning “build.” This gives the list an added resonance: a community is carried forward and rebuilt through its people, town by town.
ALSO GROWS
bēn: Son, child.
בֵּן
This is the singular related noun behind the verse’s word for “children,” naming people as members of a continuing community.
bānāh: Build, establish.
בָּנָה
This verb gives the family its building sense: the counted people are not an abstract crowd but a community rooted in named places.
binyan: Building, structure.
בִּנְיָן
This related noun echoes the idea of a community as something formed and sustained across generations.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes shape as scattered people are gathered back into named communities.
And these are the children of the province who went up out of the exile, those who had been stripped bare, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had stripped bare and carried unto Babylon, and turned again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city.These are the children of the province, who went up out of exile, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and turned back to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his city;And he will lift a banner for the nations, and gather in the driven ones of Israel, and gather the scattered of Judah from the four wings of the earth.THE THREAD
The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one.Nehemiah repeats the same three towns in its returnee list, but records 721 people rather than Ezra’s 725. The shared roster shows the place-based pattern of return, while the differing count leaves the distinct records visible.
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