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Nehemiah 10:18 — Word Study

Depth

WLCהוֹדִיָּ֥ה חָשֻׁ֖ם בֵּצָֽי׃

BSAAterʼÂṭêr HezekiahChizqîyâh AzzurʻAzzûwr

Word
Listen & take awayNehemiah 10
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 18 is in this chapter.
Hebrew ↓ Download MP3 The Masoretic text of this chapter, read aloud. Read by Abraham Shmuelof, courtesy of Audio Scriptures International. Chapter divisions by the Academy of Ancient Languages..
Say the word Each Hebrew word carries its transliteration (be.Tzai) — no per-word recordings of the Hebrew exist to link to.
Take it away
Nehemiah 10:18quick helps
In a sentenceThis verse lists three names of individuals who returned from exile.
Who is speakingThe chronicler, documenting the names of those who returned.
Where we areIn a genealogical record of those who returned from Babylonian exile.
The hard wordהוֹדִיָּ֥ה
Take awayThese names reflect the community's identity and heritage.
1 commentators on this verse Jamieson & more — read them › clause The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
How rare are these words?in the Old Testament

Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.

Deep Study — Nehemiah 10:18

Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.

Context — The List of Returneesgenerated

17Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
18Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

Nehemiah 10:18 is part of a genealogical list that documents the names of those who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. This verse highlights the importance of lineage and community among the Israelites during the restoration period. The names listed serve to connect the present community with their ancestral heritage, as seen in the broader context of Nehemiah 7:22–73 and Ezra 2:17–70.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Nehemiah 7:22–73the descendants of Hashum, 328;
2Ezra 2:17–70the descendants of Bezai, 323;

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 2 references, hung on the phrase they belong to


The Key Word הוֹדִיָּ֥ה, ho.di.Yahgenerated

הוֹדִיָּה (Hodiyah) is a Hebrew name meaning 'my majesty is Jehovah.' It refers to several individuals, including Levites and a chief of the people during the time of the Exile and Return, as noted in Nehemiah and Ezra. The name is derived from a form of another Hebrew word, but specific details about that word are not provided in the entries.

The name appears in a context that emphasizes the importance of identity among the returning exiles. Hodiah is one of the names that connects the community to their past and signifies the reverence for God.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The verse consists of a simple noun phrase listing three names: הוֹדִיָּ֥ה, חָשֻׁ֖ם, and בֵּצָֽי. The structure is straightforward, focusing on the identification of individuals rather than complex grammatical constructions.

The names are presented in a straightforward list format, emphasizing their importance as part of the community's identity.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

The Septuagint renders הוֹדִיָּ֥ה as ατηρ, which does not carry a specific meaning in this context but aligns with the Hebrew name. The choice of Greek reflects the translators' intent to convey the names without altering their significance.

The other names are similarly translated, maintaining the focus on the individuals returning from exile.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

Nehemiah 10:18 lists three names of individuals who returned from exile: Hodiah, Hashum, and Bezai. These names reflect the heritage of the Israelites and their connection to their past during the restoration period.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What does the name Hodiah mean?

Hodiah means 'my majesty is Jehovah' and is associated with several individuals during the Exile and Return period.

Who was Hashum?

Hashum was a common name among Israelites, meaning 'rich,' and he was a leader of a family that returned with Zerubbabel.

What significance do these names have?

These names connect the returning exiles to their heritage and identity, reflecting their community's history.

How are these names relevant today?

They remind us of the importance of lineage and community identity in faith traditions.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. How do the names in this verse connect to the identity of the Israelite community?
  2. What can we learn from the heritage of those who returned from exile?
  3. In what ways do names carry meaning and significance in our own lives?
  4. How can we honor our own heritage while moving forward in our faith?

Commentators on this verse — 1 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on Nehemiah 10:18 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, No JFB commentary on these verses.

Read Robert Jamieson on Nehemiah 10 →

The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company

Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.

Modern formal

BSBBerean Standard Bible2020

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

WEBWorld English Bible2000

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

NETBNew English Translation2006

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

RVARevised Version, American1894

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai;

NWBWebster's Bible1833

Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

GNVGeneva Bible1599

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,

ILTInterlinear Literal Translation2000

(10:19) Hodiyah, Chashum, Bezai,

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

Odaia, Hasum, Besai,

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

BBEBible in Basic English1949

Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.


The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank

This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.

clausenoun phrase · subjectהוֹדִיָּ֥הHodiahחָשֻׁ֖םHashumבֵּצָֽיBezai

Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.


The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran

The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint agree on the names listed in this verse. The Septuagint matches the Hebrew words directly, indicating a consistent transmission of these names across different textual traditions.

Masoretic TextLeningrad Codex, c. AD 1008 — the text this page is built on

הוֹדִיָּ֥ה חָשֻׁ֖ם בֵּצָֽי׃

Septuagintthe Greek the translators chose, word by word
הוֹדִיָּ֥הατηρחָשֻׁ֖םεζεκιαבֵּצָֽי׃αζουρ

3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.

Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.


The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with

This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.

Nehemiah 10:18הוֹדִיָּהHodiahHodiahהוֹדִיָּהחָשֻׁםHashumHashumחָשֻׁםבֵּצָ֑יBezaiBezaiבֵּצָ֑ייָדָהHodaviahHodaviahיָדָהחַשְׁמַןחַשְׁמַןבֵּסַיBesaiBesaiבֵּסַיעֶשְׂרִיםtwentytwentyעֶשְׂרִיםשָׁלֹשׁthreethreeשָׁלֹשׁקְלִיטָאKelitaKelitaקְלִיטָאשְׁבַנְיָהShebaniahShebaniahשְׁבַנְיָה
meets it a little oftener than chancemeets it far oftener than chancebuilt from the same roottwo words of the verse share ita word of this versea related word

Lexicons — every word in Nehemiah 10:18

One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.

Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.

Hodiah Hashum Bezai
הוֹדִיָּ֥הho.di.Yah Hodiah H1941 Noun proper masculine
5× in the OT scale is logarithmic — the commonest word, אֵת, appears about 11,000×
In plain English
Meaning
Hodiah means my majesty is Jehovah, and was the name of three Israelites, including two Levites in Ezra and Nehemiah's time. They lived during the Exile and Return period. Hodiah is mentioned in Nehemiah 10:18.
Tyndale gloss
Hodiah
Hebrew lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

הוֹדִיָּה (Hodiyah) is a Hebrew name meaning 'my majesty is Jehovah.' It refers to several individuals, including Levites and a chief of the people during the time of the Exile and Return, as noted in Nehemiah and Ezra. The name is derived from a form of another Hebrew word, but specific details about that word are not provided in the entries.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (full)

הוֹדִיָּה n.pr.m. (my splendour is Yah)

a man of Judah

Levites

a chief of the people

base

Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses

H1941 הוֹדִיָּה, הוֹדִיָּה

Strong's Hebrew Dictionary

1941 Howdiyah ho-dee-yaw'

a form of 1938; Hodijah, the name of three

Israelites:--Hodijah.

see HEBREW for 01938

Translators Brief Hebrew Lexicon

הוֹדִיָּה (ho.diy.yah) — Hodiah.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Neh.8.7; also called Judah (NIV: Hodaviah) at Ezr.3.9; 1x

Also named: ye.hu.dah (יְהוּדָה "Judah" H3063M)

§ Hodijah = "my majesty is Jehovah"

1) a Levite in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

2) another Levite at the same time

3) a chief of the people at the same time

הוֹדִיָּה (ho.diy.yah) — Hodiah.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Neh.10.13

§ Hodijah = "my majesty is Jehovah"

1) a Levite in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

2) another Levite at the same time

3) a chief of the people at the same time

הוֹדִיָּה (ho.diy.yah) — Hodiah.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Neh.10.18

§ Hodijah = "my majesty is Jehovah"

1) a Levite in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

2) another Levite at the same time

Read the full entry →
Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
HNpm — Noun proper masculine
HNpm
Bible dictionarieson the English sense
Smith's Bible Dictionary

(majesty of Jehovah), one of the two wives of Ezra, a man of Judah. (1 Chronicles 4:19) She is doubtless the same person as Jehudijah in ver. 18.

Nave's Topical Bible

→ Also called HODIJAH

1. Wife of Ezra 1Ch 4:19

2. A Levite Ne 8:7; 9:5; 10:10,13

3. An Israelitish chief Ne 10:18

The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
Hodiah Hashum Bezai
חָשֻׁ֖םcha.Shum Hashum H2828 Noun proper masculine
5× in the OT scale is logarithmic — the commonest word, אֵת, appears about 11,000×
In plain English
Meaning
Chashum was a common name among Israelites, including a family head who returned with Zerubbabel and a priest who stood with Ezra. The name means 'rich' and appears in Nehemiah 10:18. Chashum was a leader of 223 exiles.
Tyndale gloss
Hashum
Hebrew lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

חָשֻׁם (Chashum) refers to a name meaning 'rich.' It identifies a man associated with the Exile and Return period, specifically as the head of a family of 223 exiles returning with Zerubbabel. He is mentioned in Ezra 2:19 and Nehemiah 8:4 and 10:18, where he is noted as a priest or Levite.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (full)

חָשֻׁם n.pr.m. head of a family of returned exiles

base

Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses

H2828 חָשֻׁם

Strong's Hebrew Dictionary

2828 Chashum khaw-shoom'

from the same as 2831; enriched; Chashum, the name of two or

three Israelites:--Hashum.

see HEBREW for 02831

Translators Brief Hebrew Lexicon

חָשֻׁם (cha.shum) — Hashum.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Ezr.2.19

§ Hashum = "rich"

1) head of a family of 223 exiles returning with Zerubbabel

2) one of the priests or Levites who stood on Ezra's left while he read the law

חָשֻׁם (cha.shum) — Hashum.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Neh.8.4

§ Hashum = "rich"

1) head of a family of 223 exiles returning with Zerubbabel

2) one of the priests or Levites who stood on Ezra's left while he read the law

חָשֻׁם (cha.shum) — Hashum.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Neh.10.18

§ Hashum = "rich"

1) head of a family of 223 exiles returning with Zerubbabel

2) one of the priests or Levites who stood on Ezra's left while he read the law

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
HNpm — Noun proper masculine
HNpm
Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ha'-shum (chashum):

(1) In Ezr 2:19; Ne 7:22, "children of Hashum" are mentioned among the returning exiles. In Ezr 10:33 (compare 1 Esdras 9:33, "Asom"), members of the same family are named among those who married foreign wives.

(2) One of those who stood on Ezra's left at the reading of the law (Ne 8:4; /APC 1Esdras 9:44, "Lothasubus"). The signer of the covenant (Ne 10:18) is possibly the same.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Hashum

Opulent. (1.) Ezra 2:19; Neh. 7:22. (2.) Stood on Ezra’s left hand while he read the law (Neh. 8:4).

Smith's Bible Dictionary

(rich). Bene-Hashum, 223 in number, came back from Babylon with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:19; 10:33; Nehemiah 7:22) (B.C. before 536.) The chief man of the family was among these who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah. (Nehemiah 10:18) (B.C. 410.) One of the priests or Levites who stood on Ezra’s left hand while he read the law to the congregation. (Nehemiah 8:4) (B.C. 410.)

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

silence; their hasting

The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
Hodiah Hashum Bezai
בֵּצָֽי׃be.Tzai Bezai H1209 Noun proper masculine
3× in the OT scale is logarithmic — the commonest word, אֵת, appears about 11,000×
In plain English
Meaning
Bezai was a name given to two Israelites, one of whom was a leader of the exiles returning to Jerusalem during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Tyndale gloss
Bezai
Hebrew lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

בֵּצָ֑י (Betsay) refers to a personal name, specifically Bezai, who is noted as a chief among the returning exiles during the time of Ezra. The name is associated with the meaning 'conqueror' and appears in contexts related to the Exile and Return, specifically in Ezra 2:17 and Nehemiah 10:18.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (full)

בֵּצָ֑י n.pr.m. one of the chiefs of the people; i.e. a family

base

Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses

H1209 בֵּצָ֑י

Strong's Hebrew Dictionary

1209 Betsay bay-tsah'-ee

perhaps the same as 1153; Betsai, the name of two

Israelites:--Bezai.

see HEBREW for 01153

Translators Brief Hebrew Lexicon

בֵּצָ֑י (be.tsay) — Bezai.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Ezr.2.17

§ Bezai = "conqueror"

a chief of the returning exiles in the time of Ezra

בֵּצָ֑י (be.tsay) — Bezai.

A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Neh.10.18

§ Bezai = "conqueror"

a chief of the returning exiles in the time of Ezra

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
HNpm — Noun proper masculine
HNpm
Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

be'-za-i (betsay, "shining"(?)):

(1) A chief who with Nehemiah sealed the covenant (Ne 10:18).

(2) The descendants of Bezai returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem (323, Ezr 2:17; 324, Ne 7:23 = Bassai, 1 Esdras 5:16).

Smith's Bible Dictionary

(conqueror). "Children of Bezai," to the number of 328, returned from captivity with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:17; Nehemiah 7:23; 10:18)

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

eggs

Nave's Topical Bible

1. Head of a Jewish family, which retumed from Babylon Ezr 2:17; Ne 7:23

2. A family that sealed the covenant with Nehemiah Ne 10:18

The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
Sources on this page. Lexicons and dictionaries imported from the CrossWire SWORD modules — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, Dodson, the Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones, Robinson and Packard, Webster and Cawdrey. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Harper, 1889 — Grimm’s Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer) is public domain and is set here from the Internet Archive page scan greekenglishlex00grim; it is uncorrected OCR, marked as such on the entry itself, and the Strong’s numbers — which Thayer’s own edition does not carry — were matched by lemma against the other modules on this page. Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament (Macmillan, 1880) and Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930, which entered the United States public domain on 1 January 2026) are set from Internet Archive page scans synonymsofnewtes00treniala and vocabularyofgree00mouluoft, and are likewise uncorrected OCR matched to Strong’s numbers by lemma. Trench treats a group of words at once, so the same essay stands on the page of each word it compares. The Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary is © 1993 and is used here by permission for non-commercial use, www.teknia.com/greek-dictionary. The full Liddell-Scott-Jones and the Hebrew word data (TAHOT) come from STEPBible.org, CC BY 4.0. Brown-Driver-Briggs is the OpenScriptures digitisation, public domain. Syntax analysis is the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (biblicalhumanities.org); the concordance and morphology are built from the tagged Nestle 1904 text. Septuagint occurrences use the Open Scriptures Septuagint lemma index, derived from CCAT (University of Pennsylvania) and the Rahlfs 1935 dataset by Eliran Wong, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — used here on a non-commercial ministry site. Greek of Josephus and Barnabas from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0. Commentaries and the Ante-Nicene Fathers are public-domain texts hosted on this site. Everyday Greek from the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, CC BY 3.0, with dates and provenance from the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis. Philo and the Apostolic Fathers from Open Greek and Latin (First1KGreek), CC BY-SA 4.0. The apparatus and the fifth Greek column are the SBL Greek New Testament, © 2010 SBL and Logos Bible Software, CC BY 4.0. The Latin is the Clementine Vulgate (public domain); the Syriac New Testament is the ETCBC edition (MIT licence). The Hebrew behind the Greek is computed here from the Septuagint index and TAHOT, not taken from any aligned edition. The translation spread and the per-word edition marks come from the Translators Amalgamated Greek NT (STEPBible, CC BY 4.0); clause roles from the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (CC BY-SA 4.0); place identifications and their confidence from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding (CC BY 4.0), with map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Gospel parallels are computed here from shared uncommon vocabulary, not taken from any printed harmony. Cross references are the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and the subject headings are Nave’s Topical Bible, both public domain. Works under Creative Commons licences are used unchanged apart from markup removal.

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