What Does Nehemiah 10:10 Mean?
And their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,THE KEY
The list holds community and particularity together: they are brethren, and Hanan’s name carries the language of favor.
THE MEANING
You belong among others without becoming anonymous: the verse calls them brethren and still names each person. Hanan carries חנן, the Hebrew root for showing favor, so a name in the list also holds a living word for graciousness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging means your distinct identity disappears into the group.
THE ROOT
חָנָן
ḥānan
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor; to be gracious.
Hanan grows from the same root as the Hebrew word for favor. The name keeps that meaning present inside a list of people gathered as brethren.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor; acceptance.
חֵן
This noun makes the root’s favor explicit, showing the meaning carried in Hanan’s name.
ḥannûn: Gracious; showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form describes the quality the name Hanan evokes: a nature marked by favor.
THE PATTERN
A community can gather many people while preserving each person’s distinct place.
He counts the number of the stars; he calls each of them by name.But now God has set the limbs, each one of them, in the body, as he willed.They took hold of their brothers, their mighty ones, and entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in the instruction of God, which was given by the hand of Moses, the servant of God, and to guard and do all the commands of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;THE THREAD
And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The children God has favored your servant with.Hanan comes from חנן, the same Hebrew root translated “graciously” here. The name in Nehemiah’s list carries that language of favor into the gathering of brethren.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us