What Does Ezra 4:19 Mean?
And I made a decree, and search has been made, and it is found that this city from of old has broken away against kings, and that breaking away and sedition have been made within 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
And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein.THE KEY
The word translated “insurrection” pictures the city lifting itself up against kings.
THE MEANING
Your past can remain present in how a community is read: the search turns old revolt into a present charge. The city is described as having risen against kings, with revolt continuing to be enacted within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that past actions disappear when their moment ends: here, what is found in the record still shapes the city’s present standing.
THE ROOT
מִתְנַשְּׂאָה
mitnassa'ah
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift or carry; in this form, to lift oneself up, here against kings.
“insurrection” in this verse is mitnassa'ah. English names a political event; the Aramaic verb gives it a vertical image, a city raising itself against those above it. Its reflexive form makes the rising come from the city itself.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
The same root supplies the physical motion inside the city’s insurrection: it lifts itself against the kings.
nasi: A prince or leader, understood as one elevated.
נָשִׂיא
This related word for a ruler carries the image of elevation; here the city takes that upward motion into opposition to rulers.
מְרַד
merad
GROWS FROM
מרד
To rebel or revolt; both words name revolt.
“broken away” in this verse is merad. The KJV renders the two forms as “rebellion” and “sedition,” while the Aramaic repeats the root מרד (m-r-d, rebel or revolt). Their shared consonants gather two English labels into one continuing charge of revolt.
ALSO GROWS
merad: Rebellion.
מְרַד
This is the first term naming the city’s revolt.
meridah: Rebellion or revolt.
מְרִידָה
The next term repeats the same root, so “sedition” echoes the first charge rather than naming an unrelated offense.
THE PATTERN
A search through written records can bring past deeds forward as present evidence.
That search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers, so you will find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a breaking-away city, damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within it from of old, for which cause this city was dried up.On that night the king's sleep fled, and he commanded that the book of remembrances, the words of the days, be brought, and they were read before the king.And I see the dead, small and great, standing before God. The scrolls are opened, and another scroll is opened, which is the book of life. The dead are judged by the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.THE THREAD
Lift up your heads, O gates; and be lifted up, O doors of the ages; and the King of weight enters.Ezra’s Aramaic verb and Psalm’s Hebrew verb share the root נשא (nasa, lift or carry). In Ezra the city lifts itself against kings; in Psalm the gates lift to receive the King of glory, turning the same motion toward welcome.
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