Nehemiah 7
The full text of Nehemiah 7 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites were appointed.
2 I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.
3 I said to them, "The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut and bar the doors. Appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses."
4 Now the city was wide and large, but there were few people in it, and no houses had been rebuilt.
5 My God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials, and the people to be registered by genealogy. I found the genealogical record of those who had come up first, and I found the following written in it:
6 These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city.
7 They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
8 the descendants of Parosh: 2,172;
9 of Shephatiah: 372;
10 of Arah: 652;
11 of Pahath-Moab, of the descendants of Jeshua and Joab: 2,818;
12 of Elam: 1,254;
13 of Zattu: 845;
14 of Zaccai: 760;
15 of Binnui: 648;
16 of Bebai: 628;
17 of Azgad: 2,322;
18 of Adonikam: 667;
19 of Bigvai: 2,067;
20 of Adin: 655;
21 of Ater, of Hezekiah: 98;
22 of Hashum: 328;
23 of Bezai: 324;
24 of Hariph: 112;
25 of Gibeon: 95;
26 the men of Bethlehem and Netophah: 188;
27 of Anathoth: 128;
28 of Beth-Azmaveth: 42;
29 of Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth: 743;
30 of Ramah and Geba: 621;
31 of Michmash: 122;
32 of Bethel and Ai: 123;
33 of the other Nebo: 52;
34 of the other Elam: 1,254;
35 of Harim: 320;
36 of Jericho: 345;
37 of Lod, Hadid, and Ono: 721;
38 of Senaah: 3,930.
39 The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua: 973;
40 of Immer: 1,052;
41 of Pashhur: 1,247;
42 of Harim: 1,017.
43 The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the descendants of Hodevah: 74.
44 The singers: the descendants of Asaph: 148.
45 The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai: 138.
46 The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,
47 Keros, Sia, Padon,
48 Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai,
49 Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,
50 Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,
51 Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah,
52 Besai, Meunim, Nephushesim,
53 Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,
54 Bazlith, Mehida, Harsha,
55 Barkos, Sisera, Temah,
56 Neziah, and Hatipha.
57 The descendants of Solomon's servants: the descendants of Sotai, Sophereth, Perida,
58 Jaala, Darkon, Giddel,
59 Shephatiah, Hattil, Pokereth-Hazzebaim, and Amon.
60 The total of the temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants: 392.
61 The following came up from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, but they could not prove that their families were descended from Israel:
62 the descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda: 642.
63 And from the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai—who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name.
64 These searched for their genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
65 The governor told them that they must not eat the most holy food until a priest stood to minister with Urim and Thummim.
66 The whole assembly together was 42,360,
67 not counting their male and female servants, who numbered 7,337. They also had 245 male and female singers.
68 Their horses: 736. Their mules: 245.
69 Their camels: 435. Their donkeys: 6,720.
70 Some of the heads of families contributed to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold darics, 50 bowls, and 530 priestly garments.
71 Some of the heads of families gave to the treasury for the work 20,000 gold darics and 2,200 minas of silver.
72 What the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold darics, 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 priestly garments.
73 The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel settled in their cities. When the seventh month came, the people of Israel were in their cities.
Translation notes (13)
- Nehemiah 7:5a Hebrew sefer hayyachas, 'book of the genealogy', refers to a register of the first returnees under Zerubbabel, roughly ninety years earlier. The list that follows in verses 6-73 parallels Ezra 2 almost verbatim, with minor variations in names and numbers that likely arose in the course of textual transmission.
- Nehemiah 7:6a Medinah (מְדִינָה), 'province', designates Judah as an administrative district of the Persian empire, the territory known from contemporary seals and coins as Yehud. The list that follows parallels Ezra 2 with minor differences in names and numbers.
- Nehemiah 7:7a This list parallels Ezra 2:2, which gives eleven names to the twelve here (omitting Nahamani) and reads Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mispar, and Rehum for Azariah, Raamiah, Mispereth, and Nehum. The Nehemiah and Mordecai named among these returnees under Zerubbabel are evidently earlier figures, distinct from the author of this book and from the Mordecai of Esther.
- Nehemiah 7:38a The parallel list in Ezra 2:35 records 3,630 for Senaah, three hundred fewer than the figure here. Such numerical divergences between the two lists likely arose in scribal transmission, since Hebrew numbers were especially vulnerable to copying error; the Masoretic Text preserves both figures without harmonization.
- Nehemiah 7:63a Barzillai the Gileadite is the wealthy benefactor who provisioned David during Absalom's revolt (2 Samuel 17:27; 19:31-39). A priest who married into this prominent family adopted its name, and by the time of the return his descendants could no longer document their priestly line, with the consequence stated in the following verse. The parallel list appears in Ezra 2:61.
- Nehemiah 7:64a The verb behind 'excluded as unclean', ga'al (גָּאַל), 'to defile', is a homonym of the more familiar verb meaning 'to redeem'; here it marks the claimants as ceremonially disqualified rather than morally condemned. Because only verified Aaronic descent permitted eating the holy portions (Leviticus 22:10-16), the missing records forced the ruling reported in the next verse.
- Nehemiah 7:65a Governor renders hattirshata ('the Tirshatha'), a Persian loanword used of Nehemiah and here likely of him or a predecessor. Urim and Thummim transliterates urim vetummim, sacred lots kept in the high priest's breastpiece for discerning God's will (Exodus 28:30); their etymology is uncertain, though 'lights' and 'perfections' are often suggested.
- Nehemiah 7:66a The total 42,360 agrees exactly with Ezra 2:64, yet the individual figures listed in each chapter sum to less: roughly 31,089 in Nehemiah and 29,818 in Ezra. The difference may reflect groups omitted from the itemized lists or errors in the transmission of numerals; the Masoretic Text is followed here without adjustment.
- Nehemiah 7:68a This verse is absent from the Leningrad Codex and many other Masoretic manuscripts, likely lost when a copyist's eye skipped between similar lines. It is retained here on the evidence of other Hebrew manuscripts, the Septuagint, and the parallel census at Ezra 2:66, where the count of horses and mules stands unquestioned.
- Nehemiah 7:70a Governor renders tirshata (הַתִּרְשָׁתָא), a Persian loanword of uncertain derivation, perhaps 'the one to be feared', that is, 'his excellency'. The title designates the Persian-appointed governor of Judah and is applied explicitly to Nehemiah in Nehemiah 8:9 and 10:1.
- Nehemiah 7:71a The parallel list in Ezra 2:69 reports the gifts as a single sum of 61,000 gold darics and 5,000 silver minas, figures that do not match the itemized totals of Nehemiah 7:70-72; the two lists evidently descend from divergent copies of the same register. The darkemon, 'daric', was a Persian gold coin, its mention reflecting the era in which the list was compiled.
- Nehemiah 7:72a The parallel account in Ezra 2:69 reports the gifts as a single sum of 61,000 gold darics, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priestly garments, figures that do not match the itemized totals of Nehemiah's list. The daric (Hebrew darkemon) was a Persian gold coin, and its mention shows both lists were transmitted in the currency of the postexilic period.
- Nehemiah 7:73a The seventh month, later called Tishri, held the year's densest cluster of appointed festivals: the day of trumpet blasts, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:23-43). Its arrival here prepares for Ezra's public reading of the law and the celebration of Booths in the following chapter. The temple servants translate nethinim, literally 'given ones', those assigned to assist the Levites.
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The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Nehemiah, is free to read here on the web.
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