What Does Nehemiah 11:18 Mean in the King James?
All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred fourscore and four.
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 holy city’s holiness becomes visible in the people joined to its life and service.
THE MEANING
This verse makes the holy city concrete: its set-apart life has a counted human presence within it. Holiness is visible in people who belong to its service, not only in the name given to the place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Holiness is only an abstract quality or a title for a place, separate from the people who inhabit it.
THE ROOT
הַלְוִיִּם
ha-Leviyyim
GROWS FROM
לוה
l-w-h
To join or attach.
The name Levi echoes joining: the verse counts people whose name carries the sense of attachment. English “Levites” preserves the group’s name but can hide the image of a community joined to the life of the set-apart city.
ALSO GROWS
yillāweh: Will be joined.
יִלָּוֶה
In Genesis 29:34, Leah uses this word when she says her husband will be joined to her; it reveals the joining carried in Levi’s name.
Levi: Joined or attached.
לֵוִי
The group counted here bears the name that arose from the language of joining.
הַקֹּדֶשׁ
ha-qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
To set apart as sacred or distinct.
The root behind “holy” carries the act of setting apart: the city is marked for a distinct life. Beside the Levites’ name, the wording brings together a place set apart and people joined to it.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Holiness; that which is set apart.
קֹדֶשׁ
It is the noun form heard in the verse’s description of the city.
qiddesh: Set apart; consecrate.
קִדֵּשׁ
The verb makes explicit the action contained in the city’s description: marking something for a distinct purpose.
THE PATTERN
A set-apart community becomes visible through people joined to its service.
At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.The Hebrew root לוה (lavah), “join or attach,” appears in Leah’s words about being joined to her husband and echoes in the name Levi. Nehemiah’s count of Levites in the holy city therefore carries the old name’s image: a set-apart city inhabited by people named for joining.
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