What Does Nehemiah 7:62 Mean in the King James?
The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred forty 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
The total holds 642, while the names speak of being drawn up, of Yah’s goodness, and of being marked.
THE MEANING
The count and the names stay together: 642 descendants are counted, while Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda remain in view. Their names carry the senses of drawing up, goodness, and being marked, so the number does not exhaust what this line tells you. You can belong to a greater whole while remaining named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That being counted makes a person anonymous; here, the count and the named lineages appear together.
THE ROOT
דְּלָיָה
Dəlāyāh
GROWS FROM
דלה
To draw up or draw out, especially as from water.
“Delaiah” in this verse is Dəlāyāh. The name carries the image of being drawn up from depth; this is the verb Proverbs uses for drawing counsel out of deep water. What is hidden is brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
dālāh: To draw water or draw up.
דָּלָה
The verb gives Delaiah its image of something lifted from depth.
yidlennāh: He will draw it out.
יִדְלֶנָּה
Proverbs 20:5 uses this form for counsel drawn out from the heart’s deep water.
טוֹבִיָּה
Ṭôḇiyyāh
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, pleasing, or beneficial.
Tobiah joins tov, goodness, with Yah, so the name says “Yah is good.” Goodness here is more than a personal quality: it is the nature the name declares.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good, pleasing, or beneficial.
טוֹב
This is the word of goodness carried in Tobiah’s name.
tovah: Goodness or a good thing.
טוֹבָה
This form gives goodness a concrete expression, a good thing present among people.
נְקוֹדָא
Nəqōdā
GROWS FROM
נקד
To mark with points or speckles.
The root describes visible marks on a surface, and Nekoda carries the sense of being marked or speckled. The name preserves particularity within the count: this line has its own distinct mark.
ALSO GROWS
nāqōd: Speckled or spotted.
נָקֹד
The same root describes a visible pattern, giving Nekoda the sense of one marked out.
neqūddîm: Speckles or spots.
נְקֻדִּים
This plural form makes the root’s marks visible as distinct points.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, a name can carry and disclose the nature attached to a person, rather than serving as a bare label.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.THE THREAD
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.Delaiah is commonly understood as “Yah has drawn up,” from דלה (dalah), the same root as “draw it out” here. One name in the count thus carries the image of what lies deep being brought into view.
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