What Does Nehemiah 7:64 Mean in the King James?
These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.
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 Hebrew makes priestly belonging rest on traceable descent: when the written genealogy cannot be found, the claim cannot be carried into the priesthood.
THE MEANING
This verse places you at the boundary between a claimed place and a traceable one. The lineage record is sought, and when it cannot be found, priestly service is withheld and the people are called polluted. Here, belonging to this office rests on an identifiable line, not on a claim alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a claimed place in this priesthood is sufficient even when its genealogical record cannot be found.
THE ROOT
הַמִּתְיַחֲשִׂים
hammit-yachasim
GROWS FROM
יחש
י־ח־שׂ (y-ḥ-ś): to register or identify by tracing lineage.
“reckoned by genealogy” in this verse is hammit-yachasim. The English “reckoned” can sound like counting, but מִתְיַחֵשׂ marks genealogical enrollment: being identified through a traceable line. The decisive absence is not a missing number but a missing lineage entry, and that absence closes access to priestly service.
ALSO GROWS
hityahes: Register by genealogy; enroll along one’s lineage.
הִתְיַחֵשׂ
It names the act behind “reckoned by genealogy”: the entry traces descent rather than recording a bare count.
yahas: Genealogy, lineage, pedigree.
יַחַשׂ
This noun names the traced family line that makes the enrollment in the verse legible.
כְּתָבָם
ketavam
GROWS FROM
כתב
כ־ת־ב (k-t-b): to write or inscribe; here, a written record.
The verse joins descent to a document: a line may be claimed, but here its written trace is what can be sought. The root ties the register to inscription, so the missing record carries consequences at the boundary of priestly service.
ALSO GROWS
katav: Write, inscribe.
כָּתַב
This is the action that produces the record being sought.
mikhtav: A written document or letter.
מִכְתָּב
It shares the root’s sense of an inscription, illuminating the concrete written trace meant by “register.”
THE PATTERN
A record makes belonging legible: being written or traceable marks one’s place among a people.
These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.THE THREAD
So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.Both passages use the Hebrew root יחש for genealogical enrollment. Nehemiah shows what follows when the entry cannot be found; Chronicles shows the same tracing preserved in writing, linking a person’s line to a recorded place among the people.
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