What Does Nehemiah 7:36 Mean?
The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.
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 children of Jericho, three hundred forty and five.THE KEY
The verse makes geography kinship: 345 people are named as Jericho’s children.
THE MEANING
This line keeps a community visible through its count and place: 345 are held as Jericho’s children. The number gives the group’s size, while the place-name holds belonging inside the count.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, establish; בְּנֵי is the plural construct of בֵּן (ben), “son” or “child,” traditionally linked with this word-family.
The wording gives the group a kinship name, and its word-family connects descendants with building a household. English preserves “children” but hides that building echo, while “of Jericho” extends the belonging from family to place.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son, child
בֵּן
בְּנֵי (benei) is its plural construct form, naming this group as children of a place.
banah: Build, establish
בָּנָה
In Genesis 30:3, this verb appears in the phrase KJV renders “that I may also have children by her,” joining descendants with the building of a household.
יְרִיחוֹ
Yərîḥô
GROWS FROM
ירח
Moon; Jericho’s name is often connected with יָרֵחַ (yareach), “moon,” though its derivation is uncertain and a link with ריח (reah), “fragrance,” is also proposed.
If the name carries the moon-root, it shares consonants with יֶרַח (yeraḥ), “month,” giving Jericho a possible echo of the moon’s cycle. The derivation remains uncertain; the verse’s clear connection is that this group is named through its tie to a place.
ALSO GROWS
yareach: Moon
יָרֵחַ
This is the word often linked to Jericho’s name, giving the place-name a possible lunar echo.
yeraḥ: Month
יֶרַח
It shares the consonants ירח with “moon,” connecting the name’s possible root with the measure of a cycle.
THE PATTERN
A community becomes visible when its place of belonging and its number are held together.
Lift up the head of all the assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, by the number of their names, every male, head by head.The LORD counts when he writes up the peoples; this one is born there. Selah.Then those who gladly took his word in were immersed, and that day about three thousand living souls were added to them.THE THREAD
The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.Ezra records the same children of Jericho and the same count, with the same בְּנֵי (benei) word for “children.” The parallel keeps the number attached to a named people and place.
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