What Does Ezra 2:5 Mean in the King James?
The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five.
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
“Children” carries the image of a household being built onward through generations.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a household in view as 775 lives, not an abstract crowd. “Children” links family to the idea of building: each generation belongs to the continuing structure of a people.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
benei
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
to build, build up
The Hebrew word for children is linked to the root meaning “build.” English gives a count of descendants; the Hebrew also lets you hear a household being built across generations.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son, child
בֵּן
This is the singular form behind “children,” carrying the family link to building onward.
banah: to build
בָּנָה
The root makes the family image concrete: children are described in terms of a household built through them.
binyan: building, structure
בִּנְיָן
This related word shows the root’s structural sense: a family is something built and continued.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds number and identity together, counting lives without reducing them to an anonymous mass.
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;He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.THE THREAD
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.Where the KJV says “obtain children,” the Hebrew says “be built through her,” using יבנה (yibbaneh) from בנה, “to build.” The same root beneath “children” in Ezra lets a family line appear as a structure built across generations.
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