What Does Ezra 2:66 Mean?
Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-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
Their horses were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred forty and five;THE KEY
The count preserves kinds of strength separately: the Hebrew word for “mules” is linked to a root meaning “to separate,” and their number stays distinct from the horses.
THE MEANING
The return includes the material means of movement, and each kind is given its own count. Restoration is embodied and specific here, with distinct capacities named rather than collapsed into a vague total.
THE ROOT
פִּרְדֵּיהֶם
pirdēhem
GROWS FROM
פרד
parad
to separate, divide
The Hebrew word for “mules,” פִּרְדֵּיהֶם (pirdēhem), is linked to פרד (parad), meaning “to separate” or “divide.” Its root echoes the verse’s careful distinction: the mules have their own count alongside the horses, rather than disappearing into one general total.
ALSO GROWS
parad: to separate or divide
פָּרַד
This verb gives the root’s basic sense, echoed in the verse’s separate count for mules.
hiphrid: to cause to separate, set apart
הִפְרִיד
This related form shows the root describing an active division, while the census preserves distinct categories.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes provision tangible by naming and counting what carries people or sustains them.
Their camels, four hundred and thirty-five, their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred and twenty.And the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and went away; for all the goods of his master were in his hand; and he rose, and went to Aram-Naharaim, to the city of Nahor.He said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they had come to know, they said, Five, and two fish.THE THREAD
Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, and their mules two hundred and forty-five.Nehemiah repeats the same animal counts, including the same Hebrew word for “mules,” פִּרְדִּים (peredim), linked to פרד (parad), “to separate.” The repeated line keeps the mules distinct in the record, carrying this verse’s careful accounting into another list.
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