What Does Ezra 10:21 Mean?
And of the sons of Harim, Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
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
And of the sons of Harim; Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.THE KEY
The roster’s names turn a list into a confession: YHWH works, hears, gives life, and is strength.
THE MEANING
These names carry testimony about the LORD’s work, hearing, life, and strength. The record lets divine presence appear inside ordinary human identity: what is done, heard, animated, and sustained belongs in the story of life now.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
hear, listen, heed
Shemaiah (שְׁמַעְיָה, Shemaʿyah) means “YHWH has heard.” The name turns hearing into a testimony about YHWH, while the same root also gives words for what is heard and carried onward.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: hear, listen
שָׁמַע
This is the root inside Shemaiah: the name attributes hearing to YHWH.
shemuʿah: report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a report that travels; the root joins hearing with testimony.
מַעֲשֶׂה
maʿaseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
do, make
Maaseiah (מַעֲשֵׂיָה, Maʿaseyah) means “work of YHWH.” The name carries action back to its source, so “work” is not an abstract task here but something the name places in relation to YHWH.
ALSO GROWS
ʿasah: do, make
עָשָׂה
The verb beneath “work” shows action as the seed of the name.
maʿaseh: deed, work
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun names the result of doing and gives Maaseiah its “work” element.
עֹז
ʿoz
GROWS FROM
עזז
be strong, prevail
Uzziah (עֻזִּיָּהוּ, ʿUzziyah) means “YHWH is my strength.” The root’s branches include strength and strong refuge, so strength is not only force but also a place of support.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: strong, fierce
עַז
The adjective shows the quality carried by the root of strength.
maʿoz: stronghold, refuge
מָעוֹז
The same strength-root can name shelter, opening the name’s claim toward security as well as power.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural names can carry a spoken account of the nature or work attached to a life.
And Adam called his wife's name, the living one, Eve; because she was the mother of all living.No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
O you who hear and respond to prayer, to you all flesh comes.Shemaiah (שְׁמַעְיָה, Shemaʿyah, “YHWH has heard”) carries שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, “hear”), the root behind the psalm’s “hearest.” The psalm makes that name’s confession audible as a present description of God: prayer comes to the one who hears.
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