What Does Ezra 10:23 Mean in the King James?

Also of the Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,) Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.

Ezra 10:23 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Levites’ shared name carries the sense of being joined, yet the verse names each person within that bond.

THE MEANING

This verse holds belonging and personhood together. It names the Levites as a group, then names Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer individually. A shared identity does not make its members indistinguishable.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that belonging to a group makes a person anonymous.

THE ROOT

הַלְוִיִּם

ha-Leviyyim

GROWS FROM

לוה

to join, attach, or accompany

The name Levi is tied to ⁨לָוָה⁩ (lavah), “to join,” and Genesis 29:34 makes that link explicit. “Levites” carries this echo of joining, while the verse names the individuals within the shared identity.

ALSO GROWS

lavah: to join, attach, accompany

לָוָה

This is the verb linked to Levi’s name; Genesis 29:34 describes Leah’s hope that her husband will be joined to her.

livyat chen: an ornament or garland of favor

לְוִיַּת חֵן

The linked ornament in Proverbs 1:9 gives the root a tangible image of something joined around or accompanying its bearer.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives a shared identity shape through the particular people who belong to it.

Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Exodus 1:1 · KJVA people are introduced through the names and households that make up their shared identity.

And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

Acts 1:13 · KJVThe gathered group remains visible through the names of its members.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:

Romans 16:3 · KJVA shared work is held together with the distinct names of the people who carry it.

THE THREAD

And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.

Genesis 29:34 · KJV

Here Levi’s name is tied directly to being joined. Ezra’s “Levites” carries that same root echo, then names the individuals who share the designation.

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