What Does Ezra 10:40 Mean in the King James?

Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,

Ezra 10:40 · 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

This roll call turns a communal fracture into named lives, while one name still carries the hidden seed of willingness.

THE MEANING

Machnadebai, Shashai, and Sharai stand as particular people within a shared reckoning. The names remain visible, though the verse gives no account of their individual stories.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The idea that a communal rupture is only an abstraction gives way here to a record that names people within it.

THE ROOT

מַחְנַדְבַי

Maḥnadəḇay

GROWS FROM

נדב

To volunteer, be willing, or give freely.

Machnadebai appears to contain the root ⁨נדב⁩ (nadav), though the full name’s derivation is uncertain. English preserves the sound of the name but hides its possible connection to willingness and free giving.

ALSO GROWS

nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble.

נָדִיב

This branch reveals willingness as a quality carried by the root inside the name.

nedavah: A voluntary gift or freewill offering.

נְדָבָה

This branch shows the same root moving from willingness into an offering freely given.

THE PATTERN

A record keeps a community visible by naming people one by one.

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;

Numbers 1:2 · KJVThe count is tied to names, so the community appears as particular people rather than an anonymous total.

To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

John 10:3 · KJVBeing called by name makes each one distinct within the gathered flock.

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Luke 10:20 · KJVThe verse makes names themselves the mark of each person being held in the record.

THE THREAD

All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

Ezra 10:44 · KJV

This continuation names the weight behind the roll call: the marriages touch households, and some include children. The list holds particular people within consequences that extend beyond themselves.

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