Ezra 2:21
in Ezra 2the men of Bethlehem, 123;
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The children of Beth-lehem, a hundred twenty and three.
KJV
The children of Beth–lehem, an hundred twenty and three.
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This verse in Ezra 2
Commentary
3 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
The children of Parosh, two thousand
on Ezra 2:3-35
Verses 3 to 35 name family after family by ancestor or by hometown, the pattern Adam Clarke marks in his own notation: children of a person names descendants, children of a place names its former inhabitants. Every count stands as its own witness, since nothing else is known of most of these households beyond the number that came home. John Gill sets the list beside Nehemiah's parallel roll in his seventh chapter and finds the two registers agree in substance though not in every digit, one story kept by two hands.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
) were but 123, though it was David's city; for Bethlehem was little among the thousands of Judah, yet there must the Messiah arise, Mic. v. 2 . Anathoth had been a famous place in the tribe of Benjamin and yet here it numbered but 128 (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The children of Beth-lehem - The inhabitants: see before.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּנֵ֣י | benei | [the] descendants of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| בֵֽית־ | veit- | Beth- | H1035 → | |
| לָ֔חֶם | lachem | -lehem | H1035 → | |
| מֵאָ֖ה | meah | one hundred | H3967 → | 581 times |
| עֶשְׂרִ֥ים | ʾesrim | twenty | H6242 → | 315 times |
| וּשְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃ ס | usheloshah | and three | H7969 → | 432 times |
בְּנֵ֣י[the] descendants of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
בֵֽית־Beth-
veit-H1035 →
לָ֔חֶם-lehem
lachemH1035 →
מֵאָ֖הone hundred
meahH3967 →581 times
עֶשְׂרִ֥יםtwenty
ʾesrimH6242 →315 times
וּשְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃ סand three
usheloshahH7969 →432 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Ezra
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.