What Does Ezra 2:64 Mean in the King James?

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

Ezra 2:64 · 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 verse counts thousands as one congregation, holding the many together within a single shared identity.

THE MEANING

You encounter a whole held in two forms at once: a precise number and a single congregation. Many people make up the assembly, while its name preserves their shared gathering.

THE ROOT

הַקָּהָל

haqqahal

GROWS FROM

קהל

q-h-l

To gather as an assembly.

The word names people gathered into a whole, not merely a large number standing side by side. English keeps the sense of a congregation, while the Hebrew root also lets you hear the act of gathering inside the name.

ALSO GROWS

qahal: An assembly or congregation.

קָהָל

This noun names the gathered whole whose exact number the verse records.

haqhel: Gather or assemble.

הַקְהֵל

This verb makes the root’s action visible: a congregation is a people gathered together.

THE PATTERN

A gathered people can be many in number and still be named as one whole.

And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

Ezra 3:1 · KJVMany people gather, yet the verse describes their shared movement as one.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Psalm 22:22 · KJVThe congregation is a gathered whole in which a voice speaks among many.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12 · KJVMany members remain distinct while belonging to one body.

THE THREAD

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Psalm 22:22 · KJV

“Congregation” here shares the root ⁨קהל⁩ (qahal), “to gather as an assembly,” with the word in Ezra. The count names the gathered whole; this verse shows that same whole as a place where a voice can be heard.

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