What Does Nehemiah 7:67 Mean in the King James?

Beside their manservants and their maidservants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and they had two hundred forty and five singing men and singing women.

Nehemiah 7:67 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The count holds communal song beside servitude, showing that music does not make unequal status disappear.

THE MEANING

A community’s song and its hierarchy can occupy the same record. The verse keeps both visible: people counted through service and singers counted for their voices.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The presence of communal song means everyone in the community is free and equally honored.

THE ROOT

עַבְדֵיהֶם

ʿavdehem

GROWS FROM

עבד

To work or serve.

The Hebrew word translated “manservants” comes from ⁨עבד⁩, a root that names both the person who serves and the work or service itself. The count records people through that labor relation even as it counts singers in the same verse; song does not erase the social order carried by the word.

ALSO GROWS

ʿeved: Servant; one who serves.

עֶבֶד

This noun names the person counted as a manservant in the verse.

ʿavad: To work or serve.

עָבַד

The verb makes the labor within the status of “servant” audible.

ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.

עֲבֹדָה

This noun connects the people counted here with the work and service their status entails.

THE PATTERN

A community’s shared life does not erase the distinct people and roles within it.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Exodus 20:10 · KJVThe command names distinct members of a household and includes servants among those whose work stops.

So the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the LORD, even all that were cunning, was two hundred fourscore and eight.

1 Chronicles 25:7 · KJVThe singers are counted as a distinct role within the community’s shared life.

For the body is not one member, but many.

1 Corinthians 12:14 · KJVThe image of one body with many members preserves difference within a shared whole.

THE THREAD

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

Deuteronomy 5:14 · KJV

The word translated “manservant” in both verses belongs to the Hebrew root ⁨עבד⁩, which carries the meanings of service and work. Deuteronomy makes the human dimension of that word explicit: the person named by service is also included in the command to rest.

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