What Does Nehemiah 7:41 Mean?
The children of Pashur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven.
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 Pashur, a thousand two hundred forty and seven.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “children” belongs to the root for building, so this count pictures a household built forward through many lives.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a family’s name alongside the number of its descendants, keeping lineage and multitude in view together. It speaks now of belonging as something carried forward through a people, not just held by one person.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
Build, construct, establish.
English “children” sounds like a demographic label. The Hebrew word belongs to the build-root family, linking descendants with the building of a household. The count makes that continuation visible in many lives.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son, child.
בֵּן
This family word names the descendant; here its plural form identifies the many carried under Pashur’s name.
banah: To build, establish.
בָּנָה
The verb shares the root, allowing the lineage to be heard as a household built forward through its descendants.
THE PATTERN
A people becomes visible as households are gathered into a named count.
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.In those days Peter stood up in the middle of the learners, and said, the crowd of names together was about one hundred and twenty.THE THREAD
He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will set firm the throne of his kingdom over Israel for the ages.This verse places “build” and “son” together, words linked through the Hebrew root בנה (banah), “to build.” That root lets the “children of Pashur” be heard as a household built forward, with the count showing its continuing life.
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