What Does Ezra 2:42 Mean?
The children of the gatekeepers, the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, all one hundred and thirty-nine.
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 the porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all an hundred thirty and nine.THE KEY
What the KJV calls “porters” are gatekeepers: their families are named, and their shared work is counted at 139.
THE MEANING
The verse brings the keepers of entry into view: their families are named, and their number is counted. Tending a threshold belongs to the shared life of a community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The work of guarding access is peripheral, unrecognized labor.
THE ROOT
הַשּׁוֹעֲרִים
ha-sho'arim
GROWS FROM
שׁער
Gate; an opening or entrance.
The Hebrew term names these porters as gatekeepers, tying their role to the gate itself. The verse makes their threshold-keeping visible by naming their families and counting them.
ALSO GROWS
sha'ar: Gate, entrance.
שַׁעַר
This is the opening whose threshold the gatekeepers tend.
sho'er: Gatekeeper, doorkeeper.
שׁוֹעֵר
This is the singular form of the role named in the verse, bringing out the work of keeping a gate.
THE PATTERN
Communities make their thresholds dependable by entrusting entry to recognized keepers.
Now it came to pass, when the wall was built and I had stood up the doors, and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed,All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers at the gate were two hundred and twelve. These were counted by descent in their villages, whom David and Samuel, the one who sees, made stand in their trust.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
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.Ezra names the families who keep the gates; this psalm names entry through those gates. The shared Hebrew root שׁער (sha’ar, gate) links the keeper with the opening: access is something tended.
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