What Does Nehemiah 7:18 Mean in the King James?
The children of Adonikam, six hundred threescore and seven.
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
Adonikam’s name is commonly understood as “my Lord has risen,” and this verse shows that name continuing through a counted family line.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you see belonging as a named line, not an anonymous mass: a household is made visible member by member. Adonikam’s name stands beside the precise count of 667 children.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, establish.
The Hebrew for “children” is bənê, the construct plural of בֵּן (ben), associated with בָּנָה (banah), “to build.” English makes these descendants sound like a list attached to one ancestor; the root imagery lets the line read as a household being built across generations, with its exact count giving that structure visible shape.
ALSO GROWS
ben: son, child
בֵּן
This singular word sits beneath בְּנֵי (bənê); each child is part of the line through which the household continues.
banah: build, establish
בָּנָה
The shared root association lets the children be heard as the living construction of a family line.
אֲדֹנִיקָם
Adoniqam
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand.
“Adonikam” in this verse is Adoniqam. The name is commonly understood as אֲדֹנִי (adoni), “my lord,” plus קָם (qam), “has risen,” from the root קום (qum). Its image of rising appears beside a family line whose members are individually counted.
ALSO GROWS
qam: he stood, he rose
קָם
This is the form of the root carried in Adonikam’s name, giving the name its image of rising.
heqim: raise, establish
הֵקִים
This causative form extends the root’s sense toward setting something up to stand, echoing a family line established through its descendants.
THE PATTERN
A people becomes visible when its members are counted within their families and gathered community.
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
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.The Hebrew word translated “children” is בְּנֵי (bənê), associated with בָּנָה (banah), “to build.” Psalm 127 uses that same building root for a house, opening this family count as a picture of a household taking shape through its living line.
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