Nehemiah 10:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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בִלְגַּ֖י

Bilgay

H1084

“Bilgai”

Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1082

TWOT: None

Bilgai = "my cheerfulness" - a priest who covenanted with Nehemiah

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

5: words
5: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

בִלְגַּ֖י Bilgai H1084

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

בִלְגַּ֖י Bilgai H1084

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מַֽעַזְיָ֥ה Maaziah H4590 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

1 Chronicles 24:18

Grammatical profile

4 nouns
1 pronoun

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Nehemiah 10:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezra 10:21 Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.
Nehemiah 3:29 After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his own house. After him repaired Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east gate.
Nehemiah 12:5–6 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,
Nehemiah 12:18 of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;
Nehemiah 12:42 and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Nehemiah 10:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

מַֽעַזְיָ֥ה בִלְגַּ֖י שְׁמַֽעְיָ֑ה אֵ֖לֶּה הַכֹּהֲנִֽים

Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

The Septuagint has no separate book of Nehemiah. Its Greek text is the second half of Esdras B (2 Esdras), chapters 11–23; Ezra is the first half (1–10).

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Nehemiah 10:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Neh 10:8. These were the priests — That is, the chief of them; for there are but twenty-one of them named here.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which subscribed to keep the promise.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) These were the priests.—That is, the names of the priestly families. (Comp. Neh_12:1-6.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. these were the priests] The names of Seraiah, Jeremiah, Amariah are found in both lists (a) Neh_12:1-7 and (b) Neh_12:12-22. Shebaniah is found in (b) Neh_12:14 but appears as Shechaniah in (a) Neh_12:3. Malluch is found in (a) Neh_12:2, but appears as Malluchi (Melicu) in (b) Neh_12:14 : Harim is found in (b) Neh_12:15 but appears probably as Rehum in (a) Neh_12:3 : Meremoth is found in (a) Neh_12:3, but appears as Meraioth in (b) Neh_12:15 : Ginnetho is found in (b) Neh_12:16, but appears as Ginnethoi in (a) Neh_12:4 : Mijamin is found in (a) Neh_12:5 but appears as Miniamin in (b) Neh_12:17. Bilgai is clearly the same as Bilgah (a) Neh_12:5 and (b) Neh_12:18. Hattush in found in (a) Neh_12:2 but has dropped out of (b). Azariah has sometimes been identified with the Ezra of (a) Neh_12:1 and (b) Neh_12:13.

It thus appears that, out of the 21 ‘priests’ or ‘priestly houses’ mentioned here, nine (i.e. Pashur, Malchijah, Obadiah, Daniel, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Maaziah, Shemaiah) do not occur in the two lists of chap. 12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Priests. All, at least after Nehemias. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Nehemiah, in the Historical, opens this verse with 5 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bilgay (“Bilgai”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Bilgai” (Bilgay) shape what this verse is saying?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
The word “Bilgai” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
1 Chronicles 24:18 shares the word «Maaziah» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 5 words in this verse.