What Does Nehemiah 7:10 Mean in the King James?

The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two.

Nehemiah 7:10 · 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 counted “children” carry an echo of building: restoration takes shape through a family line carried forward.

THE MEANING

Here, a family is visible as a continuing line, held in a name and a number. The Hebrew word for “children” echoes the language of building, joining those counted to a life carried forward through generations.

THE ROOT

בְּנֵי

benei

GROWS FROM

בנה

to build, build up, establish

⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (benei, children of) belongs to the word family of ⁨בָּנָה⁩ (banah, to build). The verse holds family line and building together: what is counted is a people continued through generations.

ALSO GROWS

ben: son, child

בֵּן

The plural construct ⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (benei, children of) names the group as a line of descendants, not an anonymous count.

banah: to build, build up

בָּנָה

This is the root-family echo beneath “children”: the family line is something built forward through generations.

binyan: building, structure

בִּנְיָן

This branch makes the image concrete: the counted family is one part of a structure carried forward.

THE PATTERN

Restoration takes shape as people are gathered into a whole whose members remain visible.

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;

Numbers 1:2 · KJVThe people are counted by name and family line, making the gathered whole visible.

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

Psalm 147:2 · KJVThe gathering of scattered people is itself part of the building up.

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Romans 11:1 · KJVA person’s place within the people remains visible through named lineage.

THE THREAD

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

Psalm 147:2 · KJV

“Build up” translates ⁨בָּנָה⁩ (banah, to build), the same root family echoed in ⁨בְּנֵי⁩ (benei, children of). Nehemiah’s counted family shows that building in human scale: a people carried forward through its generations.

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