What Does Ezra 2:16 Mean in the King James?

The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight.

Ezra 2:16 · 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 return is not an indistinct crowd: one family line remains visible, counted as ninety-eight.

THE MEANING

A household stands within the gathered whole, named and counted as ninety-eight. Belonging here is particular enough to be seen, not blurred into a crowd.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a family vanishes into a crowd: even a small line remains visible as a counted part of the whole.

THE ROOT

חִזְקִיָּה

Chizqiyyah

GROWS FROM

חזק

ḥ-z-q

To be strong or firm; to strengthen or hold fast.

“Hezekiah” in this verse is Chizqiyyah. The name joins the root of strengthening with Yah, compressing “Yah strengthens” into a name. Beside the count, it holds particular belonging and strength together.

ALSO GROWS

chazaq: Be strong, grow strong, prevail.

חָזַק

The same root appears as an expression of strength, letting the name carry more than a label.

hecheziq: Hold fast, strengthen.

הֶחֱזִיק

This branch makes the root’s strength something that can be held and sustained.

THE PATTERN

The gathered whole becomes visible through particular people being counted and named.

The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,

Ezra 2:64 · KJVThe family count belongs to a larger congregation whose total is also kept in view.

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

Psalm 147:2 · KJVGathering the scattered makes a people visible as a whole again.

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:7 · KJVEven what seems too small to count is held in view.

THE THREAD

Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:

2 Chronicles 32:7 · KJV

The name Hezekiah (⁨חִזְקִיָּה⁩, Chizqiyyah, “Yah strengthens”) carries the root ⁨חזק⁩ (ḥ-z-q, “be strong, strengthen”), which appears here in “Be strong.” The name in the family line holds strengthening within it.

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