Nehemiah 7:42

Study note

Setting — The narrator documents a census of returning exiles during the post-exilic restoration, listing household counts by ancestral line. This verse functions as a single administrative entry in a systematic roll call of families returning to Judah.

The words — The text records בְּנֵי (benei), meaning “descendants,” and חָרִם (Charem), the proper name Harim, followed by אֶלֶף שִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר (elef shivah asar), literally “one thousand seven-teen.”

The thread — This exact count and name appear in Ezra 2:39, while the ancestor Harim is identified as a priestly division leader in 1 Chronicles 24:8. Later, specific men from this lineage are named among those who divorced foreign wives in Ezra 10:31.

Why it lands — The record demands recognition of individual family identity within the restored community. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant restoration proceeds through documented, named households rather than abstract collectives.

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.