What Does Nehemiah 7:26 Mean in the King James?
The men of Beth-lehem and Netophah, an hundred fourscore and eight.
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
Bethlehem means “house of bread,” so the census preserves a place of provision within the community being gathered.
THE MEANING
This verse gives two towns a visible place within a larger whole. The exact count keeps their people from fading into an indistinct crowd. Bethlehem’s name carries the image of a house of bread into that count.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The larger whole is made only from prominent places; smaller communities can disappear without being missed.
THE ROOT
בֵּית לֶחֶם
Beit Lechem
GROWS FROM
בית
b-y-t
House, home, or dwelling.
“Beth-lehem” in this verse is Beit Lechem. בֵּית (beit, “house of”) joins לֶחֶם (lechem, “bread”) to form the name “house of bread.” As an English place name, Bethlehem can conceal that everyday image of provision.
ALSO GROWS
bayit: House, home, or household.
בַּיִת
The full form makes the dwelling sense in Bethlehem’s name visible.
beit: House of; the construct form of “house.”
בֵּית
This is the form used in the compound name Beit Lechem: “house of bread.”
נְטֹפָה
Netophah
GROWS FROM
נטף
To drip or distill, drop by drop.
Netophah is commonly connected with נטף (nataph, “to drip”). Its name adds a particular image to the count: the towns are named, not flattened into numbers.
ALSO GROWS
nataph: To drip or drop.
נָטַף
This verb is the root associated with the place name Netophah.
netef: A drop or something distilled.
נֶטֶף
The noun carries the root’s sense of something falling in small measures.
THE PATTERN
A scattered people become visible again as their communities are named and counted.
Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.THE THREAD
But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.Micah holds Bethlehem as little and still a source from which something consequential comes. Here, the town’s people have an exact place in the count, so its smallness does not make it disappear from the whole.
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