15
Now I assembled these exiles at the canal that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And when I searched among the people and priests, I found no Levites there.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’eq·bə·ṣêm ’el- han·nā·hār hab·bā ’el- ’a·hă·wā wan·na·ḥă·neh šām šə·lō·šāh yā·mîm wā·’ā·ḇî·nāh ḇā·‘ām ū·ḇak·kō·hă·nîm mā·ṣā·ṯî lō- ū·mib·bə·nê lê·wî šām
Word by word18 · parsed
√ qâbats — to grasp, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singularthird person masculine plural
qâbats: to grasp, to collect, to gather The verb of ingathering. It is the word used when God promises to collect a scattered Israel, and here a scribe uses it of himself: Ezra does in miniature, by summons and muster, what the prophets said the LORD would do at the end. The first-person singular is worth weighing: one man gathers, and then discovers the gathering is defective.
√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition
√ nâhâr — a stream (including the seaArticleNounmasculine singular
nâhâr: a stream, a river A common noun (108 verses) whose referent here is genuinely unknown. Barnes and Pulpit identify Ahava with the Is of Herodotus, the modern Hit, about eighty miles up the Euphrates; Cambridge thinks a canal near Babylon “appears to be the most probable”; K&D reports Ewald’s Pallacopas and concludes “the name Ahava being still unexplained.” The unit records the uncertainty rather than settling it.
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)ArticleVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition
√ ʼAhăvâʼ — Ahava, a river of BabyloniaNounproperfeminine singular
√ chânâh — properly, to inclineConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common plural
chânâh: to incline, to pitch a tent, to encamp The camp verb of the wilderness itineraries. Whatever Ahava was, the company is described in the vocabulary of Israel between Egypt and the land: tents, a staging ground, a numbered stay. Pulpit insists the phrase is literal, since a caravan of this size would pitch outside a town rather than scatter into its inns.
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
√ shâlôwsh — threeNumbermasculine singular
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day Three days: JFB reads the halt “according to Oriental custom, while the preparations for the departure were being completed.” Cambridge dates it, from Ezra 7:9 and 8:31, to the ninth through the twelfth of the first month.
√ bîyn — to separate mentally (or distinguish), iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singularthird person feminine singular
bîyn: to separate mentally, to discern, to give heed The hinge of the verse, and a verb of the mind rather than the eye. The whole unit turns on a discernment, not an accident: Ezra looked at a list that any organizer would have called complete (people and priests were both present) and saw what was missing. Cambridge compares Proverbs 7:7, “I discerned among the youths,” and Nehemiah 13:7, where the same verb precedes another reform.
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)Preposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular
√ kôhên — literally one officiating, a priestConjunctive waw, Preposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine plural
kôhên: one officiating, a priest Priests were present in numbers. Cambridge notes that at Zerubbabel’s return “only seventy-four Levites accompanied him, although over four thousand priests returned.” The shortage is therefore not of religious men in general but of one order within the house, the order that does the unglamorous work.
√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iVerbQalPerfectfirst person common singular
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcConjunctive waw, Preposition-mNounmasculine plural construct
√ Lêvîyîy — a Levite or descendant of LeviNounpropermasculine singular
Lêvîyîy: a Levite, a descendant of Levi The absence is corporate and inherited. Cambridge traces it to the Levites’ entanglement in the high places and the idolatrous worship that Josiah’s reformation had attacked; Pulpit wonders instead whether “the jealous spirit of Korah” still moved the tribe. Both are conjectures about motive, and both are offered as such. The text records only the fact: not one.
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
shâm: there, then The adverb closes the verse where it opened it: they camped there, and there he found none. The repetition frames the emptiness with the place.