What Does Ezra 10:13 Mean?
But the people are many, and it is a time of great rain, and we cannot stand outside. Nor is this a work of one or two days, for we are many who have betrayed in this word.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.THE KEY
The Hebrew links the many people to a multiplied rebellion: the language of increase makes the scale of the breach audible.
THE MEANING
A shared breach involving many people is difficult work, especially when the conditions make it impossible to stand outside. The verse says plainly that the work takes more than a day or two, and that many have rebelled in this matter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that naming a collective breach means it can be settled quickly; the verse says the work takes time.
THE ROOT
לִפְשֹׁעַ
lifshoa
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel, break away.
“betrayed” in this verse is lifshoa. The verb beneath “transgressed” names rebellion, a rupture, not a vague mistake. The confession is collective: “we” have rebelled in this matter.
ALSO GROWS
peshaʿ: Rebellion, transgression.
פֶּשַׁע
The noun names the kind of rupture carried by the verb in this verse.
posheʿim: Rebels, transgressors.
פֹּשְׁעִים
This plural form makes the people who break away visible, echoing the verse’s collective confession.
הִרְבֵּינוּ
hirbeinu
GROWS FROM
רבה
To increase, become many.
“greatly / multiplied” in this verse is hirbeinu. The Hebrew says, in effect, “we have greatly increased to rebel.” Its r-b sound echoes the phrase “the people are many,” tying the size of the group to the scale of the breach without making the two phrases identical.
ALSO GROWS
hirbah: Increased, multiplied.
הִרְבָּה
This form shows the root’s sense of growth and abundance within the verb used here.
harbeh: Much, many, greatly.
הַרְבֵּה
This form carries the same sense of abundance, making the verse’s repeated emphasis on scale easier to hear.
THE PATTERN
A breach involving a community calls for shared work whose scale and duration remain visible.
So we built the wall, and all the wall was tied together to half of it, for the people had heart to work.While making good, let us not give out, for in its own season we reap, if we do not go slack.Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.THE THREAD
But he was pierced for our rebellion, and crushed for our crookedness. The straightening that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.“Transgressions” here comes from the same root, פשע (pashaʿ), meaning rebellion or breaking away. Ezra’s collective “we” and Isaiah’s “our” place the breach in shared language; Isaiah then sets it beside wounding and healing.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us