Ezra 2: 1-70

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Ezra Chapter 2 

2:1 VE ELEH BENEY HA MEDIYNAH HA OLIM MISHVI HA GOLAH ASHER HEGLAH NEVUCHADNETSAR MELECH BAVEL LE VAVEL VA YASHUVU LIYRU-SHALA'IM VIYHUDAH ISH LE IYRO

וְאֵלֶּה בְּנֵי הַמְּדִינָה הָעֹלִים מִשְּׁבִי הַגּוֹלָה אֲשֶׁר הֶגְלָה נְבוּכַדְנֶצּוֹר מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל לְבָבֶל וַיָּשׁוּבוּ לִירוּשָׁלִַם וִיהוּדָה אִישׁ לְעִירוֹ

KJ (King James translation): Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

BN (BibleNet translation): Now these are the children of the province, the ones who went up out of captivity from among those who had been carried away, whom Nevuchadnetsar the king of Bavel had carried away to Bavel, and who returned to Yeru-Shala'im and Yehudah, each one to his own town.

MEDIYNAH: A famous city in the Moslem world, though that is actually the abbreviation of a name-change - it was originally Yatrib. Most cities in the Arab world have a Medinah, it being the equivalent of the village square, but paved, and usually the plaza immediately inside the main city gate, though sometimes it is a citadel within the city. What is intended here then? Most translations go for "province", with the inference that a different structure had been imposed on Erets Yisra-El after the tribes of the northern kingdom were taken away by Sennacherib around 720 BCE. Entirely probable, but strange that more isn't made of that transformation at the most fundamental level of Yisra-Eli ideology, earlier in the Tanach.

GOLAH: much debate inside the Jewish world over the concepts of Golah and Galut, both of which mean "exil`e", but Golah is generally used for the Babylonian, and Galut for the Diaspora that grew up after the Roman expulsion - click here for a fuller explanation.

NEVUCHADNETSAR: most texts present the name without pointing, and then parenthetically with pointing (click here for an example). It is odd because this is the second time his name has occurred, and the texts did not do this the first time (Ezra 1:7). It is worth pointing out however, because, in The Book of Esther, the name appears with an Aleph before the Tsade - click here.

BENEY: In the Arab world today the tribes are generally pronounced Banu, though some in the Hejaz still go for Bene, the second "e" quite short, like "tea". Beney, with a long second syllable, is the traditional Jewish pronunciation, and yes, it can mean "children", but this is not "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" or "The Children's Crusade". What word then do we use to translate it?

At the same time, these are not the names of the twelve tribes of Yisra-El (the Beney Yisra-El), nor do we recognise any of them as tribal descendants from the genealogical tables. So "tribes" is not the translation here, any more than "children" - though it should be noted that the list also employs that other traditional Arab custom, that the Banu come without an article, definite or indefinite: so they are Beney here, and not Ha Beney, or Beney Ha.

Several in the list are clearly the names of towns and villages, but note that most of those (see verse 23 for example) have ANSHEY (people) rather than BENEY ("children"). Elsewhere in the Tanach (the Beney Korach and the Beney Kohat, for example - see verse 41) BENEY stands for members of a choir or orchestra, even of a crafts guild. But the numbers here are generally too high for it to be that either; unless, in order to keep them together, their families travelled with them.

As to this opening verse, they appear to be the names of the Aluphim, the lay leaders who have been put in charge of whatever these groups were - you take the Manchester crowd, he can do the Leeds, I'll take Bristol, and can someone please volunteer for Exeter and the south-west: something of that order? It is hard to explain either the names or the numbers otherwise.

2:2 ASHER BA'U IM ZERU-BAVEL YESHU'A NECHEM-YAH SERA-YAH RE'ELA-YAH MARDECHAI BILSHAN MISPAR BIGVAY RECHUM BA'ANAH MISPAR ANSHEY AM YISRA-EL

אֲשֶׁר בָּאוּ עִם זְרֻבָּבֶל יֵשׁוּעַ נְחֶמְיָה שְׂרָיָה רְעֵלָיָה מָרְדֳּכַי בִּלְשָׁן מִסְפָּר בִּגְוַי רְחוּם בַּעֲנָה מִסְפַּר אַנְשֵׁי עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

BN: Those who came with Zeru-Bav-El were Yeshu'a, Nechem-Yah, Sera-Yah, Re'ela-Yah, Mardechai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rechum, Ba'anah. This was the count of the men of the people of Yisra-El.

Which sounds like only ten people went back with Zeru-Bavel; presumably the name indicates a whole family, even a whole clan. But it remains odd, because all the other verses give the full details of each clan, numbering 42,360 in total. Is this then the list of the "leadership"?

ZERU-BAVEL: see the link for a full biography. It is unclear whether there were two separate groups, one led by Sheshbatsar and the other by Zeru-Bavel, or the one group had two leaders, or even if Sheshbatsar was perhaps the governor's title, and Zeru-Bavel his birthname.

YESHU'A: Where Zeru-Bavel means "child of Babylon", Yeshu'a is strictly messianic, the same root, probably, as Mosheh, and definitely of Yehoshu'a, Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah) Yishai (Jesse, David's father), and Yeshu (Jesus).

NECHEM-YAH: Not the famous one, whose book concludes the Tanach and who served as governor of Yehudah in Ezra's time; but the same name.

SERA-YAH: see the link.

RE'ELA-YAH: Notive how many of these are Yah names, and Jeremiah in these pages, as already noted, will appear as Yirme-Yah, not Yirme-Yahu, which is not insignificant in determining at what point proto-Judaism became patriarchal.

MARDECHAI: rather than Mordechai, which is how he tends to be pronounced by Jews as well as by non-Jews. The same spelling and pronunciation in the Ester story - click here.

BILSHAN: see the link.

MISPAR BIGVAI RECHUM BA'ANAH: is that a sentence or four more names!? Mispar means "number", as later in the verse, which is why it is confusing. BIGVAY gets the full numbering in verse 14 - though that may be a different Bigvay. RECHUM is another of those words, like Zeru-Bavel and Yeshu'a, with implicit priestly connotations, making me wonder if this verse isn't the list of the senior Kohanim who will administer the Temple, once it gets rebuilt. "Adonai Adonai El Rachum ve Chanun..." Racham being "the womb", and Rachmonis, as they say it in Yiddish, being "mercy" and "compassion"; Al-rahmani, Al-rahimi in the Moslem-Arabic. On the other hand, in the Nehemiah list (Nehemiah 7:7), RECHUM appears as NEHUM - that list also has Azar-Yah, Ra'am-Yah and Nachamani, who are not on Ezra's list, and Misperet as a variant for Mispar. I wonder if the Azar-Yah on Nechem-Yah's list was Ezra's grandfather?

YISRA-EL: Note that they are called YISRA-EL though the language is called Yehudit.

samech break - after every verse of this list in fact. In the Torah, a samech break indicated the end of a sedra, and was connected to the order of reading the Torah, which was an Ezraic determination; but this does not apply to his own book, or to any other in the Neviyim and Ketuvim sections of the Tanach, because they are not read in annual cycle. The samech is being used here as an indicator that what was originally a list has been made to conform with the verse-pattern of the Tanach.

2:3 BENEY PHAR'OSH ALPAYIM ME'AH SHIV'IM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי פַרְעֹשׁ אַלְפַּיִם מֵאָה שִׁבְעִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two.

BN: Beney Phar'osh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two.

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2:4 BENEY SHEPHAT-YAH SHELOSH ME'OT SHIV'IM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי שְׁפַטְיָה שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת שִׁבְעִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two.

BN: Beney Shephat-Yah, three hundred and seventy-two.

SHEPHAT-YAH: see the link.

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2:5 BENEY ARACH SHEV'A ME'OT CHAMISHAH VE SHIV'IM

בְּנֵי אָרַח שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת חֲמִשָּׁה וְשִׁבְעִים

KJ: The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five.

BN: Beney Arach, seven hundred and seventy-five.

ARACH: see the link.

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2:6 BENEY PHACHAT MO-AV LIVNEY YESHU'A YO-AV ALPAYIM SHEMONEH ME'OT U SHENEYM-ASAR

בְּנֵי פַחַת מוֹאָב לִבְנֵי יֵשׁוּעַ יוֹאָב אַלְפַּיִם שְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת וּשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר

KJ: The children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve.

BN: Beney Phachat Mo-Av: of the children of Yeshu'a and Yo-Av, two thousand eight hundred and twelve.

PHACHAT MO-AV: Mo-Av is definitely a place, and Eylam in the next verse likewise, but neither is a place that we would expect to associate with returning Yehudim. Mo-Av is more or less where the tribe of Re'u-Ven was originally based, due east of Yeru-Shala'im on the far side of the river Yarden, and then southwards.

YESHU'A YO-AV: translated as two men sharing a tribe, but the previous reference to Yeshu'a did not mention a Yo-Av, and there is no conjunction between the two names, so that it might well be the unique event in Jewish texts of a double-barrel.

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2:7 BENEY EYLAM ELEPH MA'TAYIM CHAMISHIM VE ARBA'AH

בְּנֵי עֵילָם אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם חֲמִשִּׁים וְאַרְבָּעָה

KJ: The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.

BN: Beney Eylam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four.

EYLAM: How many of these people were "genuine" Beney Yisra-El, rather than the random groups of victims of Babylon who had seen a good opportunity and taken it? Eylam, for example, which was part of Persia? Phachat Mo-Av? And if that is a correct assumptiom, then how very real the challenge facing Ezra, the best part of a century after Zeru-Bavel, when all those had settled in the land and were calling themselves Beney Yehudah, and he now had the task of making a unified people out of them.

However, see my note to verse 21. And then note that there is a second Eylam, at verse 31.

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2:8 BENEY ZATU TESH'A ME'OT VE ARBA'IM VA CHAMISHAH

בְּנֵי זַתּוּא תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת וְאַרְבָּעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Zattu, nine hundred forty and five.

BN: Beney Zatu, nine hundred and forty-five.

ZATU: See the link for the man; go again to Nehemiah 7 for the list-comparison; he has eight hundred for Zatu (at verse 13).

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2:9 BENEY ZAKAI SHEV'A ME'OT VE SHISHIM

בְּנֵי זַכָּי שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת וְשִׁשִּׁים

KJ: The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and threescore.

BN: Beney Zakai, seven hundred and sixty.

ZAKAI: see the link.

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2:10 BENEY VANI SHESH ME'OT ARBA'IM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי בָנִי שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Bani, six hundred forty and two.

BN: Beney Vani, six hundred and forty-two.

VANI: see the link.

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2:11 BENEY VEVAI SHESH ME'OT ESRIM U SHELOSHAH

בְּנֵי בֵבָי שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty and three.

BN: Beney Vevai, six hundred and twenty-three.

VEVAI: see the link.

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2:12 BENEY AZGAD ELEPH MA'TAYIM ESRIM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי עַזְגָּד אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Azgad, a thousand two hundred twenty and two.

BN: Beney Azgad, one thousand, two hundred and twenty-two.

AZGAD: see the link.

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2:13 BENEY ADONI-KAM SHESH ME'OT SHISHIM VE SHISHAH

בְּנֵי אֲדֹנִיקָם שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שִׁשִּׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six.

BN: Beney Adoni-Kam, six hundred and sixty-six.

ADONI-KAM: see the link.

An interestingly symmetrical number!

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2:14 BENEY VIGVAI ALPAYIM CHAMISHIM VE SHISHAH

בְּנֵי בִגְוָי אַלְפַּיִם חֲמִשִּׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Bigvai, two thousand fifty and six.

BN: Beney Vigvai, two thousand and fifty-six.

VIGVAI: Is this the same BIGVAI named in verse 2?

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2:15 BENEY ADIN ARB'A ME'OT CHAMISHIM VE ARBA'AH

בְּנֵי עָדִין אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת חֲמִשִּׁים וְאַרְבָּעָה

KJ: The children of Adin, four hundred fifty and four.

BN: Beney Adin, four hundred and fifty-four.

ADIN: see the link.

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2:16 BENEY ATER LIYCHIZKE-YAH TISH'IM U SHEMONAH

בְּנֵי אָטֵר לִיחִזְקִיָּה תִּשְׁעִים וּשְׁמֹנָה

KJ: The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight.

BN: Beney Ater of Chizke-Yah, ninety-eight.

ATER... CHIZKE-YAH: Does this Ater-Chizke-Yah verse help explain Yeshu'a-Yo-Av at verse 6? No, actually, but they present a similar problem. Does Ater link to Iter, which had to do with left-handedness, back in Judges 3:15; or does it have some other specific meaning: "the heirs of", or "direct descendants of", perhaps. The name Chizke-Yah is of course Hezekiah, who was a king, not a town - though maybe there were "mediynot" within the Pale of Exile, to which the Yehudim gave names, and these are what are being referred to in these lists: Anshey for people with a known town back in Yehudah, Beney with no obvious place to go back home, but a shared local area here in Babylon? We know that the area as a whole was called Tel Aviv (probaly Tel Abûbi, meaning "flood-plain"), because that is why the modern city in Israel was given that name.

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2:17 BENEY VETSAI SHELOSH ME'OT ESRIM U SHELOSHAH

בְּנֵי בֵצָי שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty and three.

BN: Beney Vetsai, three hundred and twenty-three.

VETSAI: see the link.

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2:18 BENEY YORAH ME'AH U SHENEYM ASAR

בְּנֵי יוֹרָה מֵאָה וּשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר

KJ: The children of Jorah, an hundred and twelve.

BN: Beney Yorah, a hundred and twelve.

YORAH: see the link.

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2:19 BENEY CHASHUM MA'TAYIM ESRIM U SHELOSHAH

בְּנֵי חָשֻׁם מָאתַיִם עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The children of Hashum, two hundred twenty and three.

BN: Beney Chashum, two hundred and twenty-three.

CHASHUM: see the link.

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2:20 BENEY GIBAR TISHIM VA CHAMISHAH

בְּנֵי גִבָּר תִּשְׁעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Gibbar, ninety and five.

BN: Beney Gibar, ninety-five.

GIBAR: see the link.

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2:21 BENEY VEIT-LACHEM ME'AH ESRIM U SHELOSHAH

בְּנֵי בֵית לָחֶם מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The children of Bethlehem, an hundred twenty and three.

BN: Beney Veit-Lachem, one hundred and twenty-three.

VEIT-LACHEM: At last, a town that we have heard of - does this tell us that the list is entirely town-based: not clans, or tribes, or peoples, or craft-guilds, or... but simply the towns to which they are returning? Logic says it should be, but...

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2:22 ANSHEY NETOPHAH CHAMISHIM VE SHISHAH

אַנְשֵׁי נְטֹפָה חֲמִשִּׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה

KJ: The men of Netophah, fifty and six.

BN: The men of Netophah, fifty-six.

Why are these ANSHEY and not BENEY? In complete contradiction of my comment in the previous verse, my guess is that BENEY describes a tribe, which is to say an extended but still interconnected family unit, whereas ANSHEY simply refers to the random inhabitants of a particular place. Now I need to find a resolution to that conflict of guesses!

And apparently no samech break; whereas, after the next verse, the samechs resume, and then we return to BENEY; so these two verses were must have been separated out, but still regarded as one: in which case I may well have a resolution to my conflict. The men of Netophah are a sub-group of the Beit Lechemites; all we need is to locate in Netophah as a place, or as a craft, or something else of a specifric nature...

Does "men" only count the men, or does it mean "people"? We have to assume people were travelling as whole families, and not just the pioneering men going ahead to establish the return, and bring the women and children when it's ready.

NETOPHAH: see the link.

2:23 ANSHEY ANATOT ME'AH ESRIM U SHEMONAH

אַנְשֵׁי עֲנָתוֹת מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁמֹנָה

KJ: The men of Anathoth, an hundred twenty and eight.

BN: Men of Anatot, a hundred and twenty-eight.

ANATOT: Yirme-Yah's (Jeremiah's) home-town. Christian Bethany. But this too is ANSHEY, not BENEY, so my resolution is thrown back at me, unresolved.

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2:24 BENEY AZ-MAVET ARBA'IM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי עַזְמָוֶת אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Azmaveth, forty and two.

BN: Beney Az-Mavet, forty-two.

AZ-MAVET: A lot of these seem to be Babylonian names; and if they are not places, as per my note to verse 16, perhaps they were Babylonish names adopted by the Yehudim, much as Napoleon, under the Baionne Decree, required European Jews to have family names.

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2:25 BENEY KIRYAT-ARIM KEPHIYRAH U VE'EROT SHEV'A ME'OT VE ARBA'IM U SHELOSHAH

בְּנֵי קִרְיַת עָרִים כְּפִירָה וּבְאֵרוֹת שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת וְאַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The children of Kirjatharim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty and three.

BN: Beney Kiryat-Arim, Kephirah and Ve’erot, seven hundred and forty-three.

Modern Ivrit still counts in the same convoluted way, save only that it now drops the first conjunction and tends to be lazy above the Vav Medugash. So this today would be SHEV'A ME'OT ARBA'IM VE SHELOSHAH

KIRYAT-ARIM: I wonder if that should be Kiryat Ye'arim and the initial Yud has been dropped. Strong (see the first link) agrees with me. So does Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah 7:29).

KEPHIYRAH:

VE'EROT:

Why are the three locations counted together: towns and their suburbs perhaps? The answer to that lies in Joshua 9:17.  Note that Ve'erot, like several other names listed (e.g. Veit Lechem, above, or Veit-El in v 28), are as they are because of a grammar rule. Ve'erot is really Be'erot, as Veit is Beit.

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2:26 BENEY HA RAMAH VA GAV'A SHESH ME'OT ESRIM VE ECHAD

בְּנֵי הָרָמָה וָגָבַע שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת עֶשְׂרִים וְאֶחָד

KJ: The children of Ramah and Gaba, six hundred twenty and one.

BN: The Beney Ha Ramah and Gav'a, six hundred and twenty-one.

HA RAMAH: Any shrine on any piece of high ground could be called a RAMAH (the Tor would be the English equivalent); but this is quite specifically HA RAMAH, the Tor. Which one? Tsi'on is usually specified, so probably not. Yet among the most sacred was...

GAV'A: or Gev'a, one of the Levitical cities within the tribal territory of Bin-Yamin.

More confusion! We thought we had worked out that Beney was for the pastorals, the Bedou and the farmers and so on, and possibly for the crafts guilds and those attached to the priesthood, while Anshey meant townspeople, but Ha Ramah and Gava confound that theory. Beney for the shrines then, as well as the towns? But that should have included Veit-El in verse 28, and it didn't.

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2:27 ANSHEY MICHMAS ME'AH ESRIM U SHENAYIM

אַנְשֵׁי מִכְמָס מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The men of Michmas, an hundred twenty and two.

BN: The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two.

MICHMAS: Where this is definitely a town, and it gets ANSHEY, as does Veit-El in the next verse, though that is a shrine outside a town (Luz) rather than the town itself; while Ai was "a heap of ruins" on the last occasion that we encountered it.

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2:28 ANSHEY VEIT-EL VE HA AI MA'TAYIM ESRIM U SHELOSHAH

אַנְשֵׁי בֵית אֵל וְהָעָי מָאתַיִם עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty and three.

BN: Men of Veit-El and Ha Ai, two hundred and twenty-three.

HA AI: see the link.

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2:29 BENEY NEVO CHAMISHIM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי נְבוֹ חֲמִשִּׁים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Nebo, fifty and two.

BN: Beney Nevo, fifty-two.


NEVO: see the link

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2:30 BENEY MAGBISH ME'AH CHAMISHIM VE SHISHAH

בְּנֵי מַגְבִּישׁ מֵאָה חֲמִשִּׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Magbish, an hundred fifty and six.

BN: Beney Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six.


MAGBISH: see the link.

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2:31 BENEY EYLAM ACHER ELEPH MA'TAYIM CHAMISHIM VE ARBA'AH

בְּנֵי עֵילָם אַחֵר אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם חֲמִשִּׁים וְאַרְבָּעָה

KJ: The children of the other Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.

BN: The other Beney Eylam, one thousand, two hundred and fifty-four.


A moment of authorial interjection in what is otherwise an administrative list - but necessary, and not easily translateable. As noted at verse 7, Eylam was one of the names by which Iran/Persia was known, and quite probably the name used by opponents of the Medes who had conquered and now ruled the land. Back in Yehudah there was also, apparently, a location named Eylam - and if so, we need to go back to the texts of Genesis (too many to list) where Eylam is mentioned, and question there which of the two was intended.


2:32 BENEY CHARIM SHELOSH ME'OT VE ESRIM

בְּנֵי חָרִם שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת וְעֶשְׂרִים

KJ: The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty.

BN: Beney Charim, three hundred and twenty.


CHARIM: see the link.

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2:33 BENEY LOD CHADID VE ONO SHEV'A ME'OT ESRIM VA CHAMISHAH

בְּנֵי לֹד חָדִיד וְאוֹנוֹ שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת עֶשְׂרִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty and five.

BN: Beney Lod, Chadid and Ono, seven hundred twenty and five.


Three towns together, or three people sharing a group, and having those names?

LOD: see the link.

CHADID: see the link.

ONO: see the link.

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2:34 BENEY YERECHO SHELOSH ME'OT ARBA'IM VA CHAMISHAH

בְּנֵי יְרֵחוֹ שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת אַרְבָּעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה

KJ: The children of Jericho, three hundred forty and five.

BN: Beney Yerecho, three hundred and forty-five.


So many of my questions throughout the Tanach relate, not to the words themselves, but to the pronunication of the words; as noted elsewhere, the earliest texts that have survived do not have any Nekudim (pointing), nor do the Torah scrolls used in synagogue. The pointing was added, first as a set of theoretical rules, then as marks on the printed page, only in the first millennium CE, and we have to assume it was based on the knowledge available at the time, and the local pronunication, which would have been a factor of geography and not necessarily of history. Here the problem is Yerecho, which is usually Yericho everywhere else [are there any other instances of Yerecho - yes, Numbers 22:1], for which I would have no problem accepting Yareyacho as an alternate reading - but this I do not understand (but then I lived in Brizzle for many years, the Somerset side, as you can tell by my pronunication; some of my family there came from the Cardiff side, and to them it was Brigstowe, while most locals insisted on Bristol).

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2:35 BENEY SENA'AH SHELOSHET ALAPHIM VE SHESH ME'OT U SHELOSHIM

בְּנֵי סְנָאָה שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים וְשֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת וּשְׁלֹשִׁים

KJ: The children of Senaah, three thousand and six hundred and thirty.

BN: Beney Sena'ah, three thousand, six hundred and thirty.


SENA'AH: see the link.

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2:36 HA KOHANIM BENEY YED'A-YAH LE VEIT YESHU'A TESH'A ME'OT SHIV'IM U SHELOSHAH

הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי יְדַעְיָה לְבֵית יֵשׁוּעַ תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת שִׁבְעִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

KJ: The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy and three.

BN: The Kohanim: Beney Yed'a-Yah, of the house of Yeshu'a, nine hundred and seventy-three.

HA KOHANIM: The definite article in use, where it is noticeably absent with BENEY and ANSHEY.

Is this the same Yeshu'a as in verse 2? We were not told he was a Kohen, so likely it is a different man who happens to have the same name; if indeed it was a person's name, and not a town - but either way, that is an awful lot of Kohanim!

But see verse 40, where the Leviyim are also associated with Yeshu'a (and there is a Yeshu'a in liturgy, at the end of the 2nd paragraph of the Amidah - I wonder if that's worth following up. Christians will be interested in the connection for quite another reason - click here.

YED'A-YAH: "The one who knows Yah". No question that there would have been priestesses too among the Kohanim, and quite probably this is, so to speak, a covent that is being listed (though Strong, as per the link, follows tradition and insists the name is masculine), though surely then they would have been BANOT YED'A-YAH.

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2:37 BENEY IMER ELEPH CHAMISHIM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי אִמֵּר אֶלֶף חֲמִשִּׁים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Immer, a thousand fifty and two.

BN: Beney Imer, one thousand and fifty-two.

IMER: see the link. Do all priestly names have a religious connotation, and were taken in place of the birthname? IMER is "eternity". Based on verse 59, Imer is the name of the place in Babylon where these people spent the exile.

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2:38 BENEY PHASH'CHUR ELEPH MA'TAYIM ARBA'IM VE SHIV'AH

בְּנֵי פַשְׁחוּר אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם אַרְבָּעִים וְשִׁבְעָה

KJ: The children of Pashur, a thousand two hundred forty and seven.

BN: Beney Phash'chur, one thousand, two hundred and forty-seven.

PHASH'CHUR: Jeremiah 20:3 and 38:1 mentions two priests of this name, the first of whom by coincidence was a "son of" Imer. The root is probably PASHACH, which means "to tear in pieces", so this could well be the Temple butchers, the men who cut up and distributed the sacrifice; though in the first Jeremiah passage it is Phash'chur himself who gets the flogging.

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2:39 BENEY CHARIM ELEPH VE SHIV'AH ASAR

בְּנֵי חָרִם אֶלֶף וְשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר

KJ: The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen

BN: Beney Charim, one thousand and seventeen.

How are these different from the Beney Charim of verse 32? A scribal error? Last time there was a repeated name (Eylam in verse 31 ) it was pointed out within the text.

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2:40 HA LEVIYIM BENEY YESHU'A VE KADMI-EL LIVNEY HODAV-YAH SHIV'IM VE ARBA'AH

הַלְוִיִּם בְּנֵי יֵשׁוּעַ וְקַדְמִיאֵל לִבְנֵי הוֹדַוְיָה שִׁבְעִים וְאַרְבָּעָה

KJ: The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy and four.

BN: The Leviyim: Beney Yeshu'a and Kadmi-El, of the Beney Hodav-Yah, seventy-four.

LEVIYIM: see the link

The same Yeshu'a yet again, or a second, a third? See my note to verse 36.

KADMI-EL: see the link

HODAV-YAH: Another name with links to Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah), for which see 1 Chronicles 5:24.

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2:41 HA MESHORERIM BENEY ASAPH ME'AH ESRIM U SHEMONAH

הַמְשֹׁרְרִים בְּנֵי אָסָף מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁמֹנָה

KJ: The singers: the children of Asaph, an hundred twenty and eight.

BN: The singers: Beney Asaph, a hundred and twenty-eight.

Another significant verse for our understanding of the complex multi-meanings of the word BENEY, or BANIM in the nominative form. Biological sons on some occasions, members of a clan or tribe on others, residents of a town, members of a craft or guild or, here, a choir. The next verse then corroborates this.

ASAPH: see the link; the original Asaph was a key figure in the creation and performance of the Davidic Psalms.

pey break, rather than a samech break; though probably it just indicates the end of the page in the scroll.

2:42 BENEY HA SHO'ARIM BENEY SHALUM BENEY ATER BENEY TALMON BENEY AKUV BENEY CHATIYTA BENEY SHOVAI HA KOL ME'AH SHELOSHIM VE TISH'AH

בְּנֵי הַשֹּׁעֲרִים בְּנֵי שַׁלּוּם בְּנֵי אָטֵר בְּנֵי טַלְמוֹן בְּנֵי עַקּוּב בְּנֵי חֲטִיטָא בְּנֵי שֹׁבָי הַכֹּל מֵאָה שְׁלֹשִׁים וְתִשְׁעָה 

KJ: The children of the porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all an hundred thirty and nine.

BN: The Freemen of the Worshipful Company of Gatekeepers: Beney Shalum, Beney Ater, Beney Talmon, Beney Akuv, Beney Chatita, Beney Shovai, in all a hundred and thirty-nine.

SHO'ARIM: Are these guilds, named after the founder; or is the named person their current Master? My translation uses the standard English form from the mediaeval period, inaccurate obviously, but it works to convey what I think Beney means on this occasion. The root is SHA'AR, meaning "a gate", so I am at a loss as to why most translators render this as "porters"; and even more at a loss to explain why they then translate the word correctly as "gatekeepeers" in Nehemiah 7:45.

SHALUM: is a Salm name. And actually so is TALMON, because the Aramaic Tav (ת) interchanges with the Yehudit Sheen (ש), as we have seen with Tammuz and Shimshon, and with Ptolemai and Shelomoh (Solomon).

ATER: Is this the same as the Ater in verse 16?

AKUV: If, like Ezra's own name, which seems to be a short form of Azar-Yah (see Ezra 7:1), Akuv is a short form of Akuv-Yah, then we have palpable evidence for the hypothesis that Ya'akov was really Yah-Ekev, and takes us into the realms of the heel-god where we can also locate Achilles (he of the "sacred heel") and Oedipus (the name means "swollen foot" in Greek).

CHATITA: see the link.

SHOVAI: see the link; Exodus 12:29, Deuteronomy 21:13 and many others are clear that the word means "captives", so this becomes a description rather than a name. Yet again the list in Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah 7:45) disagrees with the numbers.

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2:43 HA NETINIM BENEY TSIYCH'A VENEY CHASUPH'A BENEY TABA'OT

ַנְּתִינִים {ס} בְּנֵי צִיחָא {ס} בְנֵי חֲשׂוּפָא {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} טַבָּעוֹת {ס

KJ: The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

BN: The Temple servants: Beney Tsiycha, Beney Chasuph'a, Beney Taba'ot.

On this, and several subsequent occasions, I have included the multiple samech breaks in the verse, so that a reader can see the Excel Spreadsheet nature of the text. You will notice that this one also has a Reysh (ר) break, but I am as yet  unable to explain why.

NETINIM: see the link. I think "servants" may be slightly derogatory of these people; we would probably say "Temple staff" today.

TSIYCH'A: see the link, and note the Aleph ending, here and on Chasuph'a, inferring Aramaic - are these then Babylonian names, or simply Aramaic spellings of Yehudit names?

CHASUPH'A: Answering my question in the line above, might the otherwise unknown root of this be CHESEPH, which is "money" in Yehudit, and therefore this not his name but his profession as a "servant": Treasurer, or Chief Finance Officer, as you prefer. If this is correct, we should be able to do the same for Tsiych'a - but the nearest root, TSACHAH, has to do with droughts, and the blinding whiteness of the sun, not Temple service.

TABA'OT: Whereas the TAB'A was the official seal, stamped on every document issued by the priesthood, including legal documents from cases brought before the Beth Din or the Sanhedrin, the former of which definitely operated in captivity, the latter of which may have been suspended at that time, but would be resumed upon the return; cf Genesis 41:42, where it is Pharaoh's seal, and perhaps more relevantly Esther 3:10, where it is the royal seal of the very Persian king whose edict is sending these Yehudim home.

Why is Chasupha Veney when all the others are Beney? Yet another scribal error?

2:44 BENEY KEROS BENEY SIY'AHA BENEY PHADON

בְּנֵי קֵרֹס {ס} בְּנֵי סִיעֲהָא {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} פָדוֹן ס

KJ: The children of Keros, the children of Siaha, the children of Padon,

BN: Beney Keros, Beney Si'aha, Beney Phadon.

2:45 BENEY LEVANAH VENEY CHAGAVAH BENEY AKUV

בְּנֵי לְבָנָה {ס} בְנֵי חֲגָבָה {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} עַקּוּב ס

KJ: The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah, the children of Akkub,

BN: Beney Levanah, Veney Chagavah, Beney Akuv

VENEY once again, and no obvious grammatical reason for the variation.

BENEY LEVANAH: If my conjecture about these names is correct, then LEVANAH may be a misreading of LEVONAH, which was the incense used with the sacrifices (Leviticus 2:1, Numbers 5:15 et al), and an entire civil service department among the priesthood in itself. Its whiteness also connects with the dryiness of TSIYCH'A in verse 43, allowing the suggestion that his might have been the service of the libation offerings.

BENEY AKUV were in verse 42, and BENEY CHAGAVAH will appear as BENEY CHAGAV in the next verse.

2:46 BENEY CHAGAV BENEY SHAMLAI BENEY CHANAN

בְּנֵי חָגָב {ס} בְּנֵי שמלי (שַׁלְמַי) {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} חָנָן ס

KJ: The children of Hagab, the children of Shalmai, the children of Hanan,

BN: Beney Chagav, Beney Simlai (Shalmai), Beney Chanan.

CHAGAV: The link will tell you that the root means "locust", and indeed it does (Leviticus 11:22, Numbers 13:33 et al), but there is also the connection back to AKUV, our heel which limps at the coronation (or anointment actually) of a new priest-king, the so-called "partridge dance", or "hobbling dance" of the Greek world, which is the root of Pesach, the Passover (rom LIPHSO'ACH = "to limp" - see my notes to Genesis 41:46). The priest-king would have his heels bound, like a Japanese geisha, forcing him to walk on tiptoe, and therefore elevated above the rest of humanity, as the representative of the deity should be. So the ballet was invented, just as it toe-danced to this day, and the dancers were the CHAGAVOT, the root here being CHAG, "festival" - see Exodus 5:1, Leviticus 23:41, and even Psalm 107:27 for those who drank too much and danced too much and had to be carried home. A CHAGAG was a circle-dance (1 Samuel 30:16 et al) and it was probably from the same root that the special linen tunic worn for these dances, arranged around the thighs to optimise free movement, came to be known as a CHAGORAH (Ezekiel 23:15 et al, but I have chosen the Ezekiel because of its very specific Babylonian reference).

Logic then tells us that CHAGAV in this verse is the male dancers, and CHAGAVAH in the previous was the ballerinas.

SIMLAI: The text is questioned by the Masoretic scribes; it says SIMLAI, but they prefer SHALMAI. Why? Shalmai connects back to the previous SALM words (verse 42), but dancers need wardrobes, and if the CHAGORAH was the tutu, then the SIMLAH (Genesis 9:23, Deuteronomy 22:5, et al) would be the skirt part - in those days, as in ours, the leggings were made separately from the skirt, and huge companies of dancers like those at the Temple would have required expert "servants".

CHANAN: A name found repeatedly in the Tanach, but never more appositely for our purposes than in Jeremiah 35:4, where he was the head of one of the Prophetic guilds.

Reysh break again amid the samechs. I am continuing to use the standard text as my main text, but presenting the full verse where these samechs and reyshes occur - very few synagogue Jews will ever have seen this, but it is the "correct" Masoretic presentation.

2:47 BENEY GIDEL BENEY GACHAR BENEY RE'A-YAH

בְּנֵי גִדֵּל {ס} בְּנֵי גַחַר {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} רְאָיָה ס

KJ: The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah,

BN: Beney Gidel, Beney Gachar, Beney Re'a-Yah.

GIDEL: see the link.

GACHAR: see the link.

RE'A-YAH: "Yah sees" - another priestly role to go with the other Yah names.

Reysh break yet again amid the samechs.

2:48 BENEY RETSIN BENEY NEKODA BENEY GAZAM

בְּנֵי רְצִין {ס} בְּנֵי נְקוֹדָא {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} גַזָּם ס

KJ: The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam,

BN: Beney Retsin, Beney Nekoda, Beney Gazam.

Reysh break again amid the samechs and, for all my online searching, and even asking rabbis and Hebrew teachers who I know personally, I have no explanation worth offering.

I also notice that the Masoretic text hyphenates the first two Beney in each verse, but not the third - is that an explanation of the Reysh? I will show it with the next couple of verses.

2:49 BENEY UZ'A VENEY PHASE'ACH BENEY VESAI 

בְּנֵי-עֻזָּא {ס} בְנֵי-פָסֵחַ {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} בֵסָי ס

KJ: The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, the children of Besai,

BN: Beney Uzah, Beney Phase'ach, Beney Vesai.

Reysh break again amid the samechs, and another VENEY.

2:50 BENEY ASNAH VENEY ME'IYNIM BENEY NEPHIYSIM

בְּנֵי-אַסְנָה {ס} בְנֵי-מְעוּנִים {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} נפיסים (נְפוּסִים) ס

KJ: The children of Asnah, the children of Mehunim, the children of Nephusim,

BN: Beney Asnah, Beney Me'iynim, Beney Nephisim.

ASNAH: see the link.

ME'IYNIM: variations in the surviving texts, I am presuming, or the same disagreement that has Penu-El and Peni-El and others, have retained both ME'IYNIM and (in brackets) ME'UNIM. There is a town named Ma'on (Joshua 15:55, 1 Samuel 25:2 et al) in the tribal area of Yehudah, but the root simply means "habitation", and the word is used frequently for shrines and temples, "the habitation of the deity" so to speak (Deuteronomy 26:15, Psalm 26:8 et al); so this really could be anywhere.

NEPHIYSIM: variations again, the text retaining both NEPHIYSIM and, in brackets, NEPHUSIM, which is how the KJ renders it, and which Gesenius insists is correct (he regards it as Chaldean and Syriac, from a root meaning "to stretch out").

Reysh break again amid the samechs, and another VENEY (is it always the middle of three that has VENEY?)

2:51 BENEY VAKBUK BENEY CHAKUPH'A BENEY CHARCHUR

בְּנֵי-בַקְבּוּק {ס} בְּנֵי-חֲקוּפָא {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} חַרְחוּר ס

KJ: The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,

BN: Beney Vakbuk, Beney Chakuph'a, Beney Charchur.

VAKBUK: Bakbuk is a bottle , presumably leather flagons as they did not make them with glass in those days. Another Temple guild? Or perhaps a merchant group outside the Temple.

CHAKUPH'A: Aramaic, from the Aleph ending. There is a Yehudit root, CHAKAPH, which is understood, from its similarity to an Arab word that sounds the same, to have to do with "bending", but of oneself, the body, not in the sense of metalwork.

CHARCHUR: Deuteronomy 28:22 names it among the more severe forms of inflammation, so perhaps these three names are indeed linked, and the link is medical - one the keeper of the medicines, one the osteopath, one the physician.

Reysh break again amid the samechs, but this time no middle VENEY

2:52 BENEY VATSLUT BENEY MECHIYD'A BENEY CHARSH'A

בְּנֵי-בַצְלוּת {ס} בְּנֵי-מְחִידָא {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} חַרְשָׁא ס

KJ: The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,

BN: Beney Vatslut, Beney Mechiyd'a, Beney Charsh'a

VATSLUT: Is this connected to Betsal-El, the chief architect of the Tabernacle according to Exodus 31? As per the link to his name, he was unquestionably the master of a guild of specialist craftsmen, and the rebuilding of the later Tabernacle, which is to say the Temple itself, was the primary objective of these returnees. His specialism was metalwork.

MECHIYD'A: The root is CHUD, which means "to join together", so clearly this is the Yehudit word for "a joiner" - a master carpenter.

CHARSH'A: And for the third of our master craftsmen, a CHORESH is "an artificer in brass and iron", according to the description of Tuval-Kayin in Genesis 4:22.

note those Aramaic Aleph endings.

Reysh break again amid the samechs, and again no VENEY

2:53 BENEY VARKOS BENEY SIYS-RA BENEY TAMACH

בְּנֵי-בַרְקוֹס {ס} בְּנֵי-סִיסְרָא {ס} בְּנֵי- {ר} תָמַח ס

KJ: The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Thamah,

BN: Beney Varkos, Beney Siys-Ra, Beney Tamach.

Siys-Ra we know as an Egyptian name, but more importantly we know it from the Song of Devorah and Barak and the tale of Ya-El in Judges 4 and 5 - this is a very surprising name to find among the Beney Yisra-El, unless it has some cultic significance - and if it does, then we may need to rethink the Ya-El tale as well.

VARKOS: In the verse it comes before Siys-Ra, but I have placed it second in the notes, because I want to ask: is BARKOS a variant form of Barak? Funny coincidence if it isn't! On the other hand, the etymologists reckon it means a "painter".

TAMACH: Probably connected to the root TEMACH, which means "laughter".

Reysh break again amid the samechs, but no VENEY

2:54 BENEY NETSIYACH BENEY CHATIYPH'A

בְּנֵי נְצִיחַ בְּנֵי חֲטִיפָא

KJ: The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

BN: Beney Netsiyach, Beney Chatiyph'a.

NETSIYACH: probably means "honest" or "sincere", connected to the root NETSACH.

CHATIYPH'A: I have linked to Strong's Concordance, as throughout this chapter, but on this occasion his attempt at etymology would have been better expressed as "we don't know".

I have left out the two samech breaks.

2:55 BENEY AVDEY SHELOMOH BENEY SOTAI BENEY HA SOPHERET BENEY PHERUD'A

בְּנֵי {ר} עַבְדֵי שְׁלֹמֹה {ס} בְּנֵי-סֹטַי {ס} בְּנֵי-הַסֹּפֶרֶ, {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} פְרוּדָא ס

KJ: The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Peruda,

BN: The "children" of Shelomoh's servants: Beney Sotai, Beney Ha Sopheret, Beney Pherud'a.

Again, are these names or ranks or titles? I have the sense that the clerical and secular civil service is being listed, in order to speed up the re-establishment of normality when they get home. Not only do we have the staff list, but we also know which jobs need filling - or we don't, but they would have done.

SOTAI: No one has a clue, not Strong, not Gesenius, not even Guesswork.

HA SOPHERET: a sopher is a scribe, so HA SOPHERET is an equivalent of the Executive Assistant that used to be called a secretary - and definitely female in this case. BENEY may suggest, given that they have been fifty years in exile in Babylon and so the original job-holders are either dead or past retirement age, that these were genuinely children, but more likely a guild, and like mediaeval England, you followed your father, or mother, into the same trade, craft or profession.

PHERUD'A: Shelomoh's scribes were all Phoenicians, from Tsur or Tsidon or Bav-El or Ugarit, whence that wonderful new invention, the alphabet, had just arrived; so the likelihood is that these were originally Phoenician names, which became job-titles in the same way that the Beney Asaph and the Beney Korach etc honoured for all time the founders of those guilds.

Two reysh breaks and four samechs!

2:56 BENEY YA'LAH VENEY DARKON BENEY GIDEL

בְּנֵי-יַעְלָה {ס} בְנֵי-דַרְקוֹן {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} גִדֵּל ס

KJ: The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,

BN: Beney Ya'lah, Beney Darkon, Beney Gidel.

YA'LAH: Let's try another hypothesis, and take it back to several of the names that we couldn't explain in this chapter: is a sense of somebody taking a name for the purpose of the trip, like primary school teachers naming groups of kids when they go museuming, so their supervisors have a method of supervision - the tigers line up on this please and the lions over there, for a zoo trip, the Impressionists this way and the Turners that for a gallery visit, etc. So, here, the Leavers, from the root ALAH = "to go up", as in Aliyah. Of the unexplained above, words like "fleers" and "ex-captives" and "escapees" are often the nearest we can get, but only inside this hypothesis do they make any sort of sense.

DARKON: Once again I am odds with Strong's attempt (see the link) to find a meaning through the Arabic. In Yehudit, a DERECH  (דרך) is "a road", and I am quite certain that DARKON, with a Kuph here, is a mis-spelling by a later scribe, who didn't buy into my hypothesis. 

GIDEL: See verse 47. The root is probably GADOL, meaning "large" - for my primary school theory, the older kids, the "big ones".

samech, samech, reysh, samech; the second reysh between the two halves of the name. And once again VENEY for the middle name.

2:57 BENEY SHEPHAT-YAH VENEY CHATIL BENEY POCHERET HA TSEVAYIM BENEY AMI

בְּנֵי שְׁפַטְיָה {ס} בְנֵי-חַטִּיל {ס} בְּנֵי {ר} פֹּכֶרֶת הַצְּבָיִים {ס} בְּנֵי אָמִי ס

KJ: The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth of Zebaim, the children of Ami.

BN: Beney Shephat-Yah, Beney Chatil, Beney Pocheret Ha Tsevayim, Beney Ami.

SHEPHAT-YAH: see verse 4.

CHATIL: see my note to PHERUD'A at verse 55.

POCHERET HA TSEVAYIM: Is that connected with Tsevo'im, the least well-known of the five Cities of the Plain destroyed with Sedom and Amorah? A TSEVA is a "host", as in an army, or the Tseva'ot, the "hosts of the heavens", of which YHVH was the commander. However there are also TSEVAYIM, meaning "gazelles", and PACHAR means "to tie" or "to bind"; so this could be a "gazelle trapper" - don't laugh, that is the conventional understanding!, and someone has to find food for these fifty thousand souls as they traipse on foot or on donkey across the whole of Iraq and Jordan to get home. Though whether he was a "gazelle trapper", or an "animal trapper from Tsevo'im", remains open to question.

AMI: Add this to my primary school hypothesis: "the nations".

2:58 KOL HA NETIYNIM U VENEY AVDEY SHELOMOH SHELOSH ME'OT TISH'IM U SHENAYIM

כָּל הַנְּתִינִים וּבְנֵי עַבְדֵי שְׁלֹמֹה שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת תִּשְׁעִים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: All the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants, werethree hundred ninety and two.

BN: All the Netinim, and the children of Shelomoh's servants, were three hundred and ninety-two.

Which means that the last 15 verses were all sub-verses of verse 43; or perhaps only as far as verse 55, and then the sons of Shelomoh's servants from 56-58: a list of the clerics, and then of the clerks, and the source of the similarity of those two words in English no coincidence here either: in the world of the priest-king, of the divine rights of the monarch, it is very hard to distinguish the secular from the ecclesiastical.

And at this same point the internal samechs and reyshes cease, so they were clearly a function of its being a tabulated list.

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2:59 VE ELEH HA OLIM MI TEL MELACH TEL CHARSH'A KERUV ADAN IMER VE LO YACHLU LEHAGID BEIT AVOTAM VE ZAR'AM IM MI YISRA-EL HEM

וְאֵלֶּה הָעֹלִים מִתֵּל מֶלַח תֵּל חַרְשָׁא כְּרוּב אַדָּן אִמֵּר וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהַגִּיד בֵּית אֲבוֹתָם וְזַרְעָם אִם מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל הֵם

KJ: And these were they which went up from Telmelah, Telharsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer: but they could not shew their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel:

BN: And these were the ones who made Aliyah from Tel Melach, Tel Charsha, Keruv, Adan and Imer; but they could not tell their fathers' houses, and their seed, whether they were of Yisra-El.

Which sounds like they knew what their fathers and grandfathers did, and if they were Kohanim or Leviyim, but they had no idea what clan they belonged to, and/or, because there had been much marrying out (the technical word is exogamy), they could not even say if they were halachically Beney Yisra-El - and it is not possible for us to know whether this is because their father, or their mother, was the non Yisra-Eli, but actually, at this time, it was most likely the father whose status mattered, not the mother’s - see verse 61, where this major concern gets further development, as it will throughout the books of both Ezra and Nechem-Yah.

Is this simply Ezra's way of saying, "Look, we know that thousands of gate-crashers climbed on board the leaving-train, just like the exodus from Russia to Israel when the Berlin Wall came down and every Refusenik..." and we have to accept them all. Nechem-Yah will not be so welcoming.

Interesting, as the list completes, to note that all names are either Yah-suffixed or Babylonian (or hereditary Phoenician, in one or two cases); no El, Av etc that we are accustomed to from elsewhere.

IMER: The otherwise identical verse at Nehemiah 7:61 has the conjunction VE = "and" before IMER, which is grammatically more correct; probably a scribal error in this version.

2:60 BENEY DELA-YAH VENEY TOVI-YAH BENEY NEKOD'A SHESH ME'OT CHAMISHIM U SHENAYIM

בְּנֵי דְלָיָה בְנֵי טוֹבִיָּה בְּנֵי נְקוֹדָא שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת חֲמִשִּׁים וּשְׁנָיִם

KJ: The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two.

BN: Beney Dela-Yah, Beney Tovi-Yah, Beney Nekod'a, six hundred and fifty-two.

DELA-YAH: Two more for my primary school hypothesis. This one "the ones whom Yah has delivered".

TOVI-YAH: And this "the ones to whom Yah has shown favour".

Put my hypothesis into the hands of the Russian or Anglo-American soldiers who liberated the camps in 1945, and needed to send all the many displaced people somewhere, in groups... "ex-Sonderkommando 123" might not have gone down well, but Beney Dela-Yah, or Beney Tovi-Yah, even in German...

NEKOD'A: The word for "pointing", as in the system of Nekudim developed by the Masoretes! But it also means "distinguished".

Once again the middle Beney has its Bet reduced to a Vet.

Nechem-Yah tells their story with some variations in Nehemiah 7:61 ff; in his version it is all about the "halachically Jewish" issues raised in the next several verses.

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2:61 U MIBNEY HA KOHANIM BENEY CHAVA-YAH BENEY HA KOTS BENEY VAR-ZILAI ASHER LAKACH MIBNOT BAR-ZILAI HA GIL'ADI ISHAH VA YIKRA AL SHEMAM

וּמִבְּנֵי הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי חֳבַיָּה בְּנֵי הַקּוֹץ בְּנֵי בַרְזִלַּי אֲשֶׁר לָקַח מִבְּנוֹת בַּרְזִלַּי הַגִּלְעָדִי אִשָּׁה וַיִּקָּרֵא עַל שְׁמָם

KJ: And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name:

BN: And of the children of the priests: Beney Chava-Yah, Beney Ha Kots, Beney Bar-Zilai, who took a wife from among the daughters of Bar-Zilai the Gil'adi, and therefore took their name.

BENEY: Now we really are using BENEY to mean "children". But why mention this? If, as in the Judaism that we know today, the mother's membership of the tribe is what counts, then there would be neither a name-change nor a need to state it; this can only be explained by the norm of patrilocal marriage: it is the status of the father that defines who is, and who is not, a member of the tribe. So we can state that the Beney Yisra-El were still practicing patrilocal marriage at this time, where - see Kayin, Yishma-El and Esav - previously their first-born sons had always followed the Kena'ani practice of matrilocal marriage.

However, as we will see in the book of Nechem-Yah, it is the foreign wives, not the foreign husbands, that are sent away... this needs more thinking about... and remember that hereditary inheritance as a Kohen (see next verse) passes through the father, not the mother...

2:62 ELEH BIKSHU CHETAVAM HA MIT'YACHSIM VE LO NIMTSA'U VA YEGO'ALU MIN HA KEHUNAH

אֵלֶּה בִּקְשׁוּ כְתָבָם הַמִּתְיַחְשִׂים וְלֹא נִמְצָאוּ וַיְגֹאֲלוּ מִן הַכְּהֻנָּה

KJ: These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.

BN: These sought their register, that is, the genealogy, but it was not found; therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood.

And how many Jews found themselves in precisely the same situation during the pogroms, after the Holocaust! Impossible to prove you are halachically Jewish if your parents' or grandparens' ketubah (marriage certificate) has been destroyed in the blazing destruction of your home and town.

2:63 VA YOMER HA TIRSHAT'A LAHEM ASHER LO YO'CHLU MI KODESH HA KADASHIM AD AMOD KOHEN LE URIM U LE TUMIM

וַיֹּאמֶר הַתִּרְשָׁתָא לָהֶם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יֹאכְלוּ מִקֹּדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים עַד עֲמֹד כֹּהֵן לְאוּרִים וּלְתֻמִּים

KJ: And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.

BN: And the Tirshat'a said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Tumim.

TIRSHAT'A: the word is generally translated as "governor", which is terribly vague and universal. Whether is is Chaldean or Aramaic or Farsi (Persian) is not known, but probably Farsi, and what exactly it is "governor of" is even more uncertain. Ezra 5:3 has PACHAT for "governor", and that word is also attached to Mo-Av in 3:11, probably as a way of describing a sub-province. Does that make the Tirshat'a the overall governor, and the Pachat merely the governor of a sub-section? Unlikely, as I will demonstrate below.

However, it would help explain Nehemiah 7:65 if it was so, because we have been given to understand that Nechem-Yah is the governor of either just Yeru-Shala'im or possibly the whole of Yehudah, though he too calls himself PECHAM (Nehemiah 5:14) in that role, and [appears - see Nehemiah 7:65] to refer to the Tirshat'a as a different person.

And then, in Nehemiah 8:9, Nechem-Yah is now himself the Tirshat'a, and it appears to be a religious role, quite different from the political governorship.

There is also APHARSATCHAY'E in Ezra 4:9, which is likewise a position of Lesser Governor, the Commander's Number 2, and Nechem-Yah describes Chanan-Yah as "Sar ha Biyra - the governor of the citadel", in Nehemiah 7:2; which suggests that there were lots of these, and at multiple levels of office, and therefore helps us understand Nechem-Yah's statement about the "PACHAVOT EVER HA NAHAR", "the governors beyond the river", at Nehemiah 2:7. I will deal with this in greater detail from Nechem-Yah 8 onwards, wen he becomes the Tirshat'a; here we simply need to ask, but cannot answer: is this Zeru-Bavel, or Sheshbatsar, or someone else?

LO YOCHLU: The Tirshat'a has to be a persion with religious authority inside the Yisra-Eli world, because the priesthood will not accept a ruling such as this from a non-Yehudi. This adds weight to the note above, that the Tirshat'a was a clerical not a secular position, separate from the political governorship.

PACHAT...PECHAM: Just as a footnote, the seeming disparity between PACHAT and PECHAM may be because one is Yehudit but the other Aramaic, though also because one is a simple nominative, but the other has a genitive attachment, so that PECHAM SHEL MO-AV (the governor of Mo-Av) becomes PECHAT MO-AV, or PACHAT MO-AV; this is a standard construction in Yehudit, as in modern Ivrit.

 

URIM U LE TUMIM: See the link. The inference is that there may well be priests, there may even be a partially restored Temple and a temporary altar, but some of the holiest artefacts were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and they still need to be replaced before the Temple rites and ceremonies can be resumed.

2:64 KOL HA KAHAL KE ECHAD ARB'A RIB'O ALPAYIM SHELOSH ME'OT SHISHIM

כָּל הַקָּהָל כְּאֶחָד אַרְבַּע רִבּוֹא אַלְפַּיִם שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת שִׁשִּׁים

KJ: The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,

BN: The whole congregation together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty.

RIB'O: Not a word I have come across before, but clearly used as a means of indicating 40, where we would normally expect ARBA = 4 to become ARBA'IM = 40. I wonder if they had a SHELOSH RIBO for 30, etc? Never seen it used. But also see verse 66, where ARBA'IM is used for the forty in 45. And then verse 69, where there is indeed SHESH RIB'OT for sixty; the Yehudit spelling there, where RIB'O is Aramaic).

2:65 MILVAD AVDEYHEM VE AMHOTEYHEM ELEH SHIV'AT ALAPHIM SHELOSH ME'OT SHELOSHIM VE SHIV'AH VE LAHEM MESHORERIM U MESHOREROT MA'TAYIM

מִלְּבַד עַבְדֵיהֶם וְאַמְהֹתֵיהֶם אֵלֶּה שִׁבְעַת אֲלָפִים שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת שְׁלֹשִׁים וְשִׁבְעָה וְלָהֶם מְשֹׁרְרִים וּמְשֹׁרְרוֹת מָאתָיִם

KJ: Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.

BN: Not including their men-servants and their maid-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred singing men and singing women.

AVDEYHEM: servants, or slaves? they clearly can't have been the latter, in the circumstances in Bavel, so we yet again have an issue with this word that denoted slavery in Mistrayim. But we also have to ask: were they Banot Yisra-El? That their would have been female choristers for the prayers is something we have known since David's time, but the expectation is that they were from the tribe, and would have had the same genealogical requirements as the Kohanim (see verse 62). So women "employed" as salaried choristers, yes; but as "servants", let alone "slaves", unlikely...

2:66 SUSEYHEM SHEV'A ME'OT SHELOSHIM VE SHISHAH PIRDEYHEM MA'TAYIM ARBA'IM VA CHAMISHAH

סוּסֵיהֶם שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת שְׁלֹשִׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה פִּרְדֵיהֶם מָאתַיִם אַרְבָּעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה

KJ: Their horses were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred forty and five;

BN: Plus seven hundred and thirty-six horses and two hundred and forty-five mules

For the entire company of pilgrims? That means that most people were walking - for which see the map! Google estimates this (today's Baghdad is in the general area of the exile) at 1100kilometres, and about 224 hours of walking!

2:67 GEMALEYHEM ARB'A ME'OT SHELOSHIM VA CHAMISHAH CHAMORIM SHESHET ALAPHIM SHEV'A ME'OT VE ESRIM

גְּמַלֵּיהֶם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שְׁלֹשִׁים וַחֲמִשָּׁה חֲמֹרִים שֵׁשֶׁת אֲלָפִים שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת וְעֶשְׂרִים

KJ: Their camels, four hundred thirty and five; their asses, six thousand seven hundred and twenty.BN: Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses.

BN: Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses.

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2:68 U ME RA'SHEY HA AVOT BE VO'AM LE VEIT YHVH ASHER BIYRUSHALA'IM HITNADVU LE VEIT HA ELOHIM LE HA'AMIYDO AL MECHONO

וּמֵרָאשֵׁי הָאָבוֹת בְּבוֹאָם לְבֵית יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר בִּירוּשָׁלָםִ הִתְנַדְּבוּ לְבֵית הָאֱלֹהִים לְהַעֲמִידוֹ עַל מְכוֹנוֹ

KJ: And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place.

BN: And some of the clan-chiefs, when they came to the house of YHVH which is in Yeru-Shala'im, volunteered to undertake the re-establishment of the house of the gods in its place.

Yes, by my translation, that really is what it says: the Beney Yisra-El were still pantheistic at this time!

HITNADVU: Having been a MITNADEV myself once, on kibbutz in Israel, I mistook this for the clan-chiefs actually getting their hands dirty by helping with the physical building. How silly of me! These are the wealthy proto-Jews, who have valets to park their donkey-carts, and maids to wash their hands for them. As per the next verse, they gave of their wealth, probably with tax advantages.

2:69 KE CHOCHAM NATNU LE OTSAR HA MELA'CHAH ZAHAV DARKEMONIM SHESH RIB'OT VA ELEPH VE CHESEPH MANIM CHAMESHET ALAPHIM VE CHATNOT KOHANIM ME'AH

כְּכֹחָם נָתְנוּ לְאוֹצַר הַמְּלָאכָה זָהָב דַּרְכְּמוֹנִים שֵׁשׁ רִבֹּאות וָאֶלֶף וְכֶסֶף מָנִים חֲמֵשֶׁת אֲלָפִים וְכָתְנֹת כֹּהֲנִים מֵאָה

KJ: They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests' garments.

BN: Each according to his wealth contributed to the project-budget total funds amounting to sixty-one thousand darics of gold, {S} five thousand pounds of silver, and one hundred priests' tunics.

RIB'OT: see my note to verse 64. Also note that ARB'A has an Ayin (ע) but RIB'A an Aleph (א), so they are not actually from the same root.

Note the internal samech break, suggesting yet another list is being prosified here.

As with the refugees from Mitsrayim under Mosheh, we have to ask: where on Earth did these people, carried away into captivity, acquire so much wealth, and all those servants and those animals?

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2:70 VA YESHVU HA KOHANIM VE HA LEVIYIM U MIN HA AM VE HA MESHORERIM VE HA SHO'ARIM VE HA NETIYNIM BE AREYHEM VE CHOL YISRA-EL BE AREYHEM 

וַיֵּשְׁבוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהַלְוִיִּם וּמִן הָעָם וְהַמְשֹׁרְרִים וְהַשּׁוֹעֲרִים וְהַנְּתִינִים בְּעָרֵיהֶם וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעָרֵיהֶם

KJ: So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

BN: So the Kohanim, and the Leviyim, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Netiynim, dwelt in their cities, and all Yisra-El in their cities.

Netiynim, as noted in verse 43, were "Temple servants" - the "non-clerical professionals" rather than "slaves"

"Some of the people", because there were thousands who chose not to make aliyah, but preferred to remain in the diaspora - from whom the small Jewish communities of India and China would later emerge, but especially the vastly significant Mizrachi Jewish community of Babylonia. But also "some of the people" because, as we deduced above and this verse has confirmed, these fifty thousand were in fact just the advance party, the vast range of experts who would be needed to build, and to run, the basics of a community to which the rest could then return.

"THEIR CITIES" presumably meaning whichever Levitical cities they were appointed to.

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