What Does Nehemiah 7:51 Mean?
The children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah,
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 Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Phaseah,THE KEY
Three family names preserve a vivid Hebrew lexicon: locust, strength, and limping.
THE MEANING
The verse names three households in succession and gives each a place in the wider record. Their names carry distinct images, held together in one genealogy.
THE ROOT
פַּסֵחַ
pāsēaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
The root pāsaḥ (פָּסַח) carries the senses of limping and passing over.
Phaseah carries an uneven step in its name, while the same root appears in pesaḥ, “Passover” or “passing over.” English keeps the family name but hides this surprising movement within it.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: To limp or pass over
פָּסַח
The root’s two senses place an uneven step beside the movement of passing over.
pesaḥ: Passover; passing over
פֶּסַח
This related word makes the “passing over” sense of the root visible alongside the name’s association with limping.
גַּזָּם
gazzām
GROWS FROM
גזם
The root gāzam (גָּזַם) means to cut down or shear; gāzām also names a locust.
English leaves Gazzam as an opaque proper name, while its Hebrew form names a locust, associated with cutting or consuming vegetation. The name preserves that image within the genealogy.
ALSO GROWS
gāzām: Locust
גָּזָם
This is the Hebrew word carried by the family name Gazzam.
gāzam: To cut down or shear
גָּזַם
This verb gives the locust image a cutting force within the same word family.
עֻזָּא
ʿuzzā
GROWS FROM
עזז
The root ʿazaz (עָזַז) means to be strong or mighty.
Uzza is linked with words for strength and might. English preserves the name but conceals the strength-word within it, placing that image beside the locust and limping imagery of the other names.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōz: Strength; might
עֹז
This noun shares the strength-word family carried by Uzza.
ʿaz: Strong; fierce
עַז
This adjective makes the forceful quality of the name’s root audible.
THE PATTERN
Genealogies make continuity visible by naming generations and their place in a larger line.
These are the births of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.Now these are the births of Perez. Perez brought forth Hezron.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
And my God set in my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be counted by descent. And I found a scroll of the descent of those who went up at the first, and found written therein,This verse describes the register that holds the names listed in 7:51. Its frame makes the three brief family names legible as entries in a larger reckoning.
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