What Does Nehemiah 10:26 Mean in the King James?

And Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,

Nehemiah 10:26 · 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

Even a covenant shared by a whole community remains visible in individual names, and Hanan carries the root of favor.

THE MEANING

This line keeps three distinct people visible within a shared covenant commitment. Hanan’s name carries the root of favor; the community is not reduced to a crowd, but remembered through particular names.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A shared promise makes the individual disappear into the crowd.

THE ROOT

חָנָן

Ḥānān

GROWS FROM

חנן

ḥ-n-n

Show favor; act graciously.

Hanan comes from the root of showing favor, so favor is audible inside this list of covenant participants. The verse does not describe Hanan’s actions, but his name gives the shared commitment a human face and the language of favor.

ALSO GROWS

ḥēn: Favor or gracious regard.

חֵן

This branch makes the name resonate with favor within the community’s shared commitment.

ḥannūn: Gracious, showing favor.

חַנּוּן

The same root names graciousness as a quality; the LORD is described with this word in Exodus 34:6.

THE PATTERN

A shared covenant becomes concrete through particular people who take their place within it.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Joshua 24:25 · KJVThe covenant is made with a people who stand together in a particular place and moment.

They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

Nehemiah 10:29 · KJVA shared commitment becomes real through the people who join themselves to it.

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

2 Corinthians 3:2 · KJVA community becomes a visible witness through the actual people who embody its message.

THE THREAD

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Exodus 34:6 · KJV

The Hebrew word translated “gracious” is ⁨חַנּוּן⁩ (ḥannūn), from the same root ⁨חנן⁩ (ḥ-n-n) carried by Hanan’s name. The name in this list echoes the language used to describe the LORD as showing favor.

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