What Does Ezra 8:3 Mean in the King James?
Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh; Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty.
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
Zechariah means “Yah remembers,” and the word for the counted males echoes the same Hebrew consonants, placing remembrance beside the family record.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a name, a family line, and a count together: belonging can be particular and shared at once. Zechariah is named, and those counted with him remain connected to their lineage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being counted means being unseen; here, the tally sits beside a named person and his family line.
THE ROOT
זְכַרְיָה
Zĕḵaryāh zĕḵārîm
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, keep in remembrance; the same consonants also appear in the Hebrew word for males.
“Zechariah; males” in this verse is Zĕḵaryāh zĕḵārîm. Zechariah joins zakar, “remember,” with Yah: “Yah remembers.” The word for “males” in this verse echoes the same consonants, placing the name beside the roster; the two words carry distinct lexical senses.
ALSO GROWS
zāḵar: To remember or call to mind
זָכַר
This verb supplies the remembrance carried in Zechariah’s name.
zikkārôn: Remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
It names remembrance held in a form that can endure and be recalled.
zĕḵārîm: Males
זְכָרִים
This is the word used for the counted group here; its consonants echo Zechariah’s name.
לְהִתְיַחֵשׂ
lehit'yāḥēś
GROWS FROM
יחש
Trace or register descent; establish a genealogical line.
The phrase translated “reckoned by genealogy” describes enrollment through ancestry, not merely assigning a number. The count stays attached to a traceable family line.
ALSO GROWS
yaḥaś: Genealogy, lineage
יַחַשׂ
It names the family record that gives the enrollment its context.
hityāḥēś: To be enrolled genealogically
הִתְיַחֵשׂ
This form describes the tracing of descent expressed in the verse.
שְׁכַנְיָה
Šĕḵanyāh
GROWS FROM
שכן
Dwell, settle, take up residence.
Shechaniah’s name carries shakan, “dwell,” joined to the divine name: “Yah has dwelt.” A dwelling-word stands at the head of a verse that traces the people descended from him.
ALSO GROWS
šāḵan: To dwell, settle
שָׁכַן
This verb is the root within Shechaniah’s name.
miškān: Dwelling place, tabernacle
מִשְׁכָּן
It develops the same root into a place associated with dwelling.
šāḵēn: Inhabitant, neighbor
שָׁכֵן
It names one who dwells among others, extending the root from dwelling to a person’s place within a community.
THE PATTERN
Scripture renders a people visible by holding names, kinship, and number together.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;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;And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)THE THREAD
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.Zechariah means “Yah remembers,” built on the Hebrew root זכר. Exodus uses that same root for “memorial,” joining the name’s remembrance to something carried across generations; Ezra’s verse places a named person within a recorded family line.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us