Nehemiah 7:8

Study note

Setting — Nehemiah 7:7 introduces a census of the returned exiles under Zerubbabel and other leaders. Nehemiah 7:8 records the specific headcount for one of the listed families within this broader register.

The words — The text lists בְּנֵי (benei, "descendants of") and פַרְעֹשׁ (Parosh) followed by the numerical components אַלְפַּיִם (two thousand), מֵאָה (one hundred), שִׁבְעִים (seventy), and שְׁנַיִם (two). Together these Hebrew terms record the exact tally of 2,172 men from this lineage.

The thread — Ezra 2:3 records the identical count of 2,172 for the descendants of Parosh. Nehemiah 10:14 later lists Parosh among the leaders of the people, while Ezra 8:3 notes Zechariah among the descendants of Parosh.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of the precise accounting of each family's return. It requires the reader to treat the census as a documented record of specific lineages rather than an abstract statistic.

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.