Bible Strands

Nehemiah 11:36

And some divisions of the Levites of Judah settled in Benjamin.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Nehemiah documents the post-exilic repopulation of Jerusalem, listing which families relocated to secure the city. The narrator addresses the returned community by recording their new residential assignments to establish the restored settlement's structure.

The words — מַחְלְק֥וֹת (mach.lə.qōṯ) translates as "divisions" or "clans," while לְ/בִנְיָמִֽין (ləḇinyāmîn) means "to Benjamin." The text explicitly states that specific Levite groups originally from Judah moved into the Benjamin tribal territory.

The thread — This cross-tribal resettlement of Levites appears in the administrative lists of Joshua 21:1 and the territorial assignments of 1 Chronicles 6:54. The distribution pattern also surfaces in Genesis 49:7, where the scattering of Levi is recorded.

Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that post-exilic community restoration involved deliberate administrative realignment rather than strict tribal isolation. It asks the reader to recognize how religious leadership was geographically redistributed to serve the restored settlement.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וּמִן־u./min-and/ some ofהַלְוִיִּ֔םha/l.vi.Yimthe/ Levitesמַחְלְק֥וֹתmach.le.Kot[the] divisions ofיְהוּדָ֖הye.hu.DahJudahלְבִנְיָמִֽין׃ פle./vin.ya.Min[belonged] to/ Benjamin

King James Version

And of the Levites were divisions in Judah, and in Benjamin.

Cross-references