What Does Nehemiah 11:6 Mean?
All the sons of Perez who settled in Jerusalem were four hundred and sixty-eight men of strength.
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
All the sons of Perez that dwelt at Jerusalem were four hundred threescore and eight valiant men.THE KEY
The breach-named line is counted among the valiant inhabitants of the city whose name carries wholeness.
THE MEANING
Your story can hold both the breach that marks its beginning and a place of belonging now. This verse counts Perez’s descendants as inhabitants of Jerusalem and calls them valiant, joining rupture, dwelling, and wholeness in one sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A beginning marked by rupture does not mean rupture is all a line can become; here the descendants of Perez are counted as inhabitants and valiant men.
THE ROOT
פֶּרֶץ
Perets
GROWS FROM
פרץ
To break through, burst forth; a breach.
“Perez” in this verse is Perets. The name פֶּרֶץ (Perets, “breach”) preserves the language of breaking through. Here that name belongs to a counted, settled people: what begins as a breach becomes a lineage dwelling in Jerusalem.
ALSO GROWS
parats: To break through or burst forth.
פָּרַץ
This is the verb behind the naming of Perez; the family name carries the action that marked its beginning.
perets: A breach or breaking forth.
פֶּרֶץ
The name holds the rupture and the breakthrough together, a connection English presents only as a personal name.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Wholeness, completeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the language of shalom, wholeness, in its name. The verse places descendants bearing the name of a breach within this city of wholeness, holding both meanings together in their dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch reveals the wholeness carried in the city’s name.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of wholeness concrete: the city’s name resonates with completeness.
גִּבּוֹרֵי חַיִל
Gibborê chayil
GROWS FROM
גבר
To become strong, prevail.
“men of strength” in this verse is Gibborê chayil. The phrase names these men as mighty ones of strength, not simply as people present in a census. Its root connects their valor with prevailing, making the count a record of capability as well as belonging.
ALSO GROWS
gavar: To be strong, prevail.
גָּבַר
This verb shows the force beneath the description of the men as valiant.
gibbor: A mighty one, a strong man.
גִּבּוֹר
This is the singular form behind the verse’s plural phrase for valiant men.
THE PATTERN
A breach named at the start of a line can become a lineage that multiplies and takes its place in the world.
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.But the more they bent them low, the more they multiplied and burst forth. And they recoiled from the face of the children of Israel.Judah brought forth Perez and Zerah out of Tamar, and Perez brought forth Hezron, and Hezron brought forth Ram.THE THREAD
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.“How hast thou broken forth?” gives the name Pharez its explanation through the same root that means breach and breaking through. Here that name remains in descendants counted as valiant inhabitants of Jerusalem, carrying the origin into their present dwelling.
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