What Does Ezra 3:7 Mean?
They gave silver also unto the cutters and the carvers, and food, and drink, and oil, unto them of Sidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the permission they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
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
They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.THE KEY
The rebuilding begins when every kind of provision, money, food, skilled hands, timber, and royal permission, moves into one shared work.
THE MEANING
Rebuilding takes shape through more than vision: workers receive pay and food, suppliers bring timber, and permission opens a route from Lebanon to Joppa. In the reader’s present life, a beginning becomes buildable when resources, skill, and access arrive together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that meaningful rebuilding is only inward or spiritual; it also takes wages, meals, transport, skilled labor, and authorization.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנוּ
wayyittĕnû
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The root behind “gave” also carries the sense of setting or placing. Money and provisions are placed into the hands of those who can turn them toward the work; Ezra’s Nethinim, the “given ones” assigned to temple service, echo this same language of being set toward the house.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given and placed into another’s hands, like the resources entering the work here.
nethinim: The given ones; temple servants
נְתִינִים
The name links service to the same root as giving, showing another way people are placed in the work of the house.
לַחֹצְבִים
laḥōṣəvîm
GROWS FROM
חצב
ḥ-ṣ-b
To hew, quarry, or cut out.
“cutters” in this verse is laḥōṣəvîm. English “masons” suggests a trade label; the Hebrew calls them the ones hewing stone out. Beside the craftsmen and cedar, the word exposes the rough work of restoration: material first has to be cut free and shaped.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōṣēv: Hewer; one who cuts stone
חֹצֵב
The singular form makes the physical action inside “masons” visible: the stone is cut out for building.
maḥṣēv: Quarry
מַחְצֵב
The quarry is the place where stone is cut out, linking the builders’ work to the material’s source.
לֶחָרָשִׁים
laḥārāšîm
GROWS FROM
חרש
ḥ-r-sh
To work or shape material by craft; a craftsman.
“carvers” in this verse is laḥārāšîm. The Hebrew names skilled makers more broadly than the English “carpenters”; the material gives the craft its form. Beside stone-hewers and cedar suppliers, it reveals a worksite built from distinct kinds of skilled hands.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārāš ʿēṣîm: Woodworker; carpenter
חָרָשׁ עֵצִים
This branch names the craft applied to wood, the material brought from Lebanon for the rebuilding.
ḥārāš barzel: Ironworker; smith
חָרָשׁ בַּרְזֶל
The same craftsman word applies to ironwork too, showing how the term spans skilled makers working different materials.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling set apart for God takes shape when many people bring distinct resources and abilities into one shared work.
The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman whose heart made them free-hearted to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And now, command that they cut cedars for me from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants, and I will give you the wages of your servants according to all you say, for you know that among us there is none who knows how to cut trees like the Sidonians.The same root נתן appears in Ezra’s “they gave” and Solomon’s “I will give hire.” The repeated word opens the cedar work as an exchange: timber, skilled hands, and payment are placed into the network that builds a house.
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