What Does Nehemiah 7:17 Mean in the King James?
The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty and two.
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
A number can count a people without erasing the name that holds them together.
THE MEANING
Your place within a people can be both particular and countable: the name remains beside the number. The verse holds a family in view as a whole without letting its identity dissolve into a statistic.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being counted means being reduced to a statistic. Here, the count stays joined to the family’s name.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
benei
GROWS FROM
בנה
בנה (banah) means to build or establish.
The Hebrew בני (benei, children of) is the plural family word linked with בנה (banah, build). Kinship carries the image of a household taking shape across generations, so this line preserves more than a quantity: it names a people built together.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son; a member of a family
בֵּן
The singular beneath “children” keeps the count connected to individual kinship.
banah: to build
בָּנָה
This shared root lets family sound like something taking shape across generations.
binyan: building; structure
בִּנְיָן
The built structure echoes the family gathered under one name.
עַזְגָּד
ʿAzgād
GROWS FROM
עזז
The name עַזְגָּד (ʿAzgād, commonly glossed “Gad is strong”) begins with עַז (ʿaz, strong), from עזז (ʿazaz, be strong).
“Azgad” in this verse is ʿAzgād. The family’s name carries a resonance of strength before its number is given. The verse names the group without defining what that strength looks like.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: strength; might
עֹז
This noun gives the name’s strength element a concrete sense of might.
ʿazuz: mighty; strong
עָזוּז
This related form reinforces the strength carried by the name.
THE PATTERN
Belonging can hold both a community’s count and its particular identity.
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;He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.But now are they many members, yet but one body.THE THREAD
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:The Hebrew בני (benei, children of) is linked with בנה (banah, build). Proverbs uses that same root for a house being built, opening this family count as a household taking shape across generations.
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