What Does Ezra 4:22 Mean?
Take heed now that you do not fail to do this. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?
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
Take heed now that ye fail not to do this: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?THE KEY
The danger is damage allowed to grow, until one neglected failure reaches beyond its starting point and wounds the larger order.
THE MEANING
This warning speaks to you now: an ignored failure can give damage room to increase until it reaches the powers and structures around you. The concern is the spread of harm, not merely the first lapse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inaction leaves things unchanged: here, damage increases when needed action is left undone.
THE ROOT
יִשְׂגֵּא
yiśgēʾ
GROWS FROM
שגא
ś-g-ʾ
To grow, increase, or become great.
“grow” in this verse is yiśgēʾ. The Aramaic verb says the damage grows or increases. The danger is compounding harm: what is left unchecked becomes greater.
ALSO GROWS
yiśgēʾ: Grow, increase.
יִשְׂגֵּא
This is the verse’s verb: the damage is described as expanding, not remaining fixed.
śaggî: Great, much.
שְׂגִיא
This related form shows the root’s movement from increase to magnitude.
חֲבָלָה
ḥăḇālāh
GROWS FROM
חבל
ḥ-b-l
To damage, harm, or ruin.
The noun is built on a root for harming or ruining, so damage names active spoilage, not a neutral inconvenience. Paired with “grow,” it describes harm increasing in scale.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇal: Damage, harm, or ruin.
חָבַל
The verb makes the noun’s force visible: damage is something that acts upon and spoils what is intact.
məḥabbēl: One who damages or destroys.
מְחַבֵּל
This branch names the agent of ruin, showing the root can describe both the harm and the one who causes it.
מַלְכִין
malkîn
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
To rule or reign.
“kings” in this verse is malkîn. The word belongs to the same root family as “kingdom” and “reign.” The verse measures damage by how it reaches governance, making the threatened harm larger than a private inconvenience.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The singular form shows the ruler named in the verse as part of the root’s family.
malkût: Kingdom, reign, or rule.
מַלְכוּת
This branch widens the stakes from rulers themselves to the realm and governance they represent.
THE PATTERN
Neglect lets a breach or small force multiply until it reaches the larger structure around it.
Through much slackness the rafters sag, and through hands that let drop the house drips through.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!A little leaven leavens the whole kneaded mass.THE THREAD
And in the days of these kings the God of heaven shall raise up a governance which shall not be destroyed for the ages. The governance shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these governances, and it shall stand for the ages.The word for “kings” here and “kingdom” there share the root מלך (m-l-k), meaning rule or reign. That shared root widens the stakes: damage reaches governance, while Daniel’s verse places every kingdom beside one that stands.
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