What Does Ezra 10:4 Mean?
Rise, for this word is upon you, and we also will be with you. Hold fast, and do it.
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
Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.THE KEY
A matter can be yours to carry without being yours to carry alone.
THE MEANING
A responsibility can rest on you without leaving you by yourself in it. The strength spoken here is joined to action: others stand with you as the matter moves from decision into doing. The verse holds both truths at once, the responsibility is yours, and the presence around you is real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that being responsible means carrying the whole weight alone.
THE ROOT
חֲזַק
chazaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
חזק (chazaq): be strong or firm; strengthen.
“Hold fast” in this verse is chazaq. The command is חֲזַק (chazaq, be strong), a word of firmness as well as strength. Placed between “we also will be with thee” and “do it,” that firmness carries responsibility into action with companionship close around it.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Be strong; become firm.
חָזַק
The root describes becoming firm, not only feeling brave.
chizzeq: Strengthen; make strong.
חִזֵּק
The root also names strengthening another, echoing the people’s promise to stand with Ezra.
הַדָּבָר
hadavar
GROWS FROM
דבר
דבר (davar): speak; word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew noun הַדָּבָר (hadavar, the matter) belongs to דבר (davar, speak; word or matter): the same word can name speech, an affair, or a thing. English “matter” can sound like a detached problem, while the Hebrew keeps the spoken word and the matter itself connected, something voiced and answerable now.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The verse’s “matter” shares its Hebrew word with “word,” holding what is spoken and what must be addressed together.
dibber: Spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root keeps speech within the word for the matter at hand.
THE PATTERN
When a task rests on one person, presence and shared burden make action possible.
Hold fast and be firm. Do not fear, and do not quake before them. For the LORD your God is the one who walks with you. He will not release you, nor leave you.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and firm, and do it. Do not fear, nor be shattered, for the LORD God, even my God, will be with you. He will not release you, nor let go of you, until you have finished all the work of serving the house of the LORD.The same pair of commands appears here: חֲזַק (chazaq, be strong) and עֲשֵׂה (asah, do). Its promise that God “will be with thee” opens Ezra’s “we also will be with thee” further: strength and action are surrounded by presence.
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