What Does Ezra 8:3 Mean?
Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh, Zechariah; and with him were counted by genealogy of the males, a hundred and fifty.
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
Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh; Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty.THE KEY
Zechariah means “Yah remembers,” and the word for the counted males echoes the same Hebrew consonants, placing remembrance beside the family record.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a name, a family line, and a count together: belonging can be particular and shared at once. Zechariah is named, and those counted with him remain connected to their lineage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being counted means being unseen; here, the tally sits beside a named person and his family line.
THE ROOT
זְכַרְיָה
Zĕḵaryāh zĕḵārîm
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, keep in remembrance; the same consonants also appear in the Hebrew word for males.
“Zechariah; males” in this verse is Zĕḵaryāh zĕḵārîm. Zechariah joins zakar, “remember,” with Yah: “Yah remembers.” The word for “males” in this verse echoes the same consonants, placing the name beside the roster; the two words carry distinct lexical senses.
ALSO GROWS
zāḵar: To remember or call to mind
זָכַר
This verb supplies the remembrance carried in Zechariah’s name.
zikkārôn: Remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
It names remembrance held in a form that can endure and be recalled.
zĕḵārîm: Males
זְכָרִים
This is the word used for the counted group here; its consonants echo Zechariah’s name.
לְהִתְיַחֵשׂ
lehit'yāḥēś
GROWS FROM
יחש
Trace or register descent; establish a genealogical line.
The phrase translated “reckoned by genealogy” describes enrollment through ancestry, not merely assigning a number. The count stays attached to a traceable family line.
ALSO GROWS
yaḥaś: Genealogy, lineage
יַחַשׂ
It names the family record that gives the enrollment its context.
hityāḥēś: To be enrolled genealogically
הִתְיַחֵשׂ
This form describes the tracing of descent expressed in the verse.
שְׁכַנְיָה
Šĕḵanyāh
GROWS FROM
שכן
Dwell, settle, take up residence.
Shechaniah’s name carries shakan, “dwell,” joined to the divine name: “Yah has dwelt.” A dwelling-word stands at the head of a verse that traces the people descended from him.
ALSO GROWS
šāḵan: To dwell, settle
שָׁכַן
This verb is the root within Shechaniah’s name.
miškān: Dwelling place, tabernacle
מִשְׁכָּן
It develops the same root into a place associated with dwelling.
šāḵēn: Inhabitant, neighbor
שָׁכֵן
It names one who dwells among others, extending the root from dwelling to a person’s place within a community.
THE PATTERN
Scripture renders a people visible by holding names, kinship, and number together.
This is the book of the births of Adam. In the day that God created the ground-being, in the likeness of God he made him.Lift up the head of all the assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, by the number of their names, every male, head by head.In those days Peter stood up in the middle of the learners, and said, the crowd of names together was about one hundred and twenty.THE THREAD
God also said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name for the ages, and this is my remembrance to all generations.Zechariah means “Yah remembers,” built on the Hebrew root זכר. Exodus uses that same root for “memorial,” joining the name’s remembrance to something carried across generations; Ezra’s verse places a named person within a recorded family line.
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