What Does Nehemiah 7:72 Mean in the King James?
And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pound of silver, and threescore and seven priests’ garments.
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
Here, “gave” carries the sense of setting something in place: the people’s contributions make the shared restoration tangible.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you among the unnamed many: shared restoration takes material form in what people give, gold, silver, and garments for the priests. What the wider community contributes has a place in the work, and the text counts it without naming each giver.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only prominent contributors matter is undone by the verse’s explicit account of what the rest of the people give.
THE ROOT
נָתְנוּ
natenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The verb נָתְנוּ (natenu, “they gave”) comes from נתן (natan, “to give, set, or place”). The word carries the sense of putting something into place, so the people’s offering is part of how the shared work takes shape, from valuables to garments used by the priests.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift; something given.
מַתָּנָה
The shared root links the people’s act of giving to the gift itself: what they place into the work becomes part of its provision.
natun: Given, set, or placed.
נָתוּן
This branch carries the sense of something put in place, echoing how the people’s contributions take tangible form in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Shared sacred work takes tangible form through what people give and bring into it.
And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.The Hebrew root נתן (natan, “to give, set, or place”) appears in the repeated “hath given,” and the phrase “gift of God” comes from that same root. The root holds giving and receiving together: what people place into a shared work is also understood as something first placed in their hands.
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