What Does Ezra 8:13 Mean in the King James?
And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males.
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 turns a closing family branch into three named people and a counted group beside them.
THE MEANING
This verse holds the community in two forms at once: three people are named, and sixty males are counted alongside them. “Last” marks where this branch stands in the sequence, while the names keep it visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being last in a sequence means being forgotten: here the last sons still receive names, and those beside them are counted.
THE ROOT
אַחֲרֹנִים
ʾaḥărōnîm
GROWS FROM
אחר
To be behind or afterward; later in a sequence.
The root makes “last” a position in a sequence, not a judgment of worth. It can also point toward what follows from the present line.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaḥar: After, behind
אַחַר
This branch shows how “last” can describe where someone stands in a sequence.
ʾaḥărît: The end, latter part, or outcome
אַחֲרִית
This branch carries the same root toward what comes afterward.
אֱלִיפֶלֶט
ʾĔlîp̄eleṭ
GROWS FROM
פלט
To escape or slip free from danger.
Eliphelet is commonly understood as “God is deliverance” or “my God is escape.” The root connects the name with both a person who escapes and escape itself, placing deliverance within the names carried by this family line.
ALSO GROWS
pālîṭ: A survivor or one who escapes
פָּלִיט
This branch shows escape embodied in a person, echoing the verse’s named people.
pəlêṭāh: Escape or survivors
פְּלֵיטָה
This branch names the condition of getting through, a meaning carried in Eliphelet’s name.
שְׁמַעְיָה
Šəmaʿyāh
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen, with heeding included when the context calls for response.
Shemaiah is commonly understood as “the LORD hears” or “heard by the LORD.” The name carries hearing as attention, a deeper shade than sound alone.
ALSO GROWS
šāmaʿ: Hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
This branch shows the listening sense carried in Shemaiah’s name.
šəmûʿāh: A report or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch links hearing with what is received and carried onward.
THE PATTERN
A person’s name keeps identity visible within a community or record larger than any one person.
The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six.Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.THE THREAD
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.Ezra’s “last” and Genesis’s “last days” come from the same Hebrew root family for what is after or behind. That shared root gives “last” a place in a sequence, while Ezra’s list keeps that place populated by particular people.
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