What Does Nehemiah 7:31 Mean?
The men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two.
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
The men of Michmas, an hundred and twenty and two.THE KEY
A place associated with hiddenness comes into view through a count precise enough to name its people.
THE MEANING
Restoration makes belonging concrete: this community has a named home and an exact count. Its 122 people remain visible as a group rather than dissolving into an unnamed mass.
THE ROOT
מִכְמָס
Mikmas
GROWS FROM
כמס
k-m-s
To store away or conceal; a rare, sparsely attested root.
“Michmas” in this verse is Mikmas. The place-name is traditionally linked with a rare verb for hiding or storing something away. Here, that hidden-sounding place becomes visible as a community with an exact number.
ALSO GROWS
kāmas: To store away, conceal.
כָּמַס
This rare verb supplies the traditional root connection behind the place-name.
Mikmas: Michmas; a place-name traditionally associated with a hidden store or place.
מִכְמָס
The verse names this home community and preserves its count, bringing the place into view.
אַנְשֵׁי
anshē
GROWS FROM
אנש
ʾ-n-š
To be frail or weak; in this word family, mortal humanity.
The form for “men” carries the same consonants as a word for mortal humans and a verb of frailty. That consonant family lets the count register vulnerable human lives, not just a figure.
ALSO GROWS
ʾĕnōsh: Mortal human, humankind.
אֱנוֹשׁ
Its consonants connect the verse’s people with humanity in its finite, vulnerable condition.
ʾānaš: To be weak, sick, or incurably ill.
אָנַשׁ
This verb shares the consonants and gives the human word-family its note of frailty.
THE PATTERN
Restoration makes belonging concrete by locating people and keeping their place visible in a count or name.
The men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two.The LORD counts when he writes up the peoples; this one is born there. Selah.To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.THE THREAD
Shall a frail one be more aligned than God? Shall a strong man be cleaner than his maker?The Hebrew word for “men” here shares the consonantal family of Job’s “mortal man.” That connection lets the registry’s number open onto the finite human lives it counts.
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