What Does Ezra 2:50 Mean?
The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephusim.
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 Asnah, the children of Mehunim, the children of Nephusim,THE KEY
This list keeps even small communities visible through the names their children carry.
THE MEANING
The verse holds three communities in view through the names their children carry. It speaks to you of belonging that continues across generations without losing its particular names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only prominent people belong in the record: these named communities remain in view.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, establish.
The phrase בְּנֵי (bənê), “children of,” comes from בֵּן (ben), “son” or “child,” linked to בָּנָה (banah), “to build.” That connection lets lineage suggest a structure carried forward through generations, while the repeated phrase keeps each community distinct.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son, child.
בֵּן
Its plural construct, בְּנֵי (bənê), names each group through its line of belonging.
banah: To build, establish.
בָּנָה
Its link with “child” gives the family word an echo of a people being built and continued.
THE PATTERN
A people remains visible through its names and generations.
These are the births of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.The LORD counts when he writes up the peoples; this one is born there. Selah.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
Look, children are the LORD's portion; and the fruit of the womb is a wage.Psalm 127:3 uses בָּנִים (banim), “children,” from the same בנה root carried in Ezra’s בְּנֵי (bənê), “children of.” Ezra shows children carrying a community’s name; the Psalm opens that same word toward the value of the children themselves.
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