What Does Ezra 4:5 Mean?
And they hired counselors against them to break their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius 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
And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.THE KEY
The counsellors and the purpose they target grow from the same Hebrew root: the plan is attacked by purchasing counsel.
THE MEANING
Resistance can be deliberately arranged and sustained; the verse names voices hired against a purpose, with the aim of making it fail. The pressure comes from counsel organized to break another plan.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Opposition proves a purpose has failed on its own merits; this verse shows that obstruction can be engineered by people who want the purpose to fail.
THE ROOT
יוֹעֲצִים
yoʿatsim
GROWS FROM
יעץ
y-ʿ-ts
To advise, counsel, or deliberate.
“counsellors / purpose” in this verse is yoʿatsim. The Hebrew uses words from the same root for both the advisers and the purpose they target: counsellors are people of counsel, and the purpose is their counsel or plan. English separates the people from the plan; the Hebrew exposes the conflict as counsel set against counsel.
ALSO GROWS
yoʿets: A person who gives counsel.
יוֹעֵץ
The hired agents are named by the counsel they bring into the conflict.
ʿetsah: Advice, a plan, or purpose.
עֵצָה
This is the noun at the root of “their purpose,” showing that what the counsellors target is a formed plan.
לְהָפֵר
lehafer
GROWS FROM
פרר
p-r-r
To break, annul, or make void.
“break” in this verse is lehafer. “Frustrate” can sound like discouragement, but the Hebrew verb carries the force of breaking or annulling. The attack aims to make their plan unable to stand.
ALSO GROWS
hephir etzah: To nullify or bring a plan to nothing.
הֵפִיר עֵצָה
Psalm 33:10 uses this same verb with “counsel,” echoing the exact mechanism in Ezra.
hepher berit: To break or annul a covenant.
הֵפֵר בְּרִית
The same root can describe breaking something held in force, giving “frustrate” the weight of deliberate nullification.
THE PATTERN
A contested purpose becomes a contest of counsel over which plan will stand.
The LORD breaks the counsel of nations; he undoes the plans of peoples.Many plans are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand.And now I say to you, Stand away from these men and release them. For if this counsel or this work is of humankind, it will come undone. But if it is of God, you cannot undo them, lest perhaps you be found even fighting against God.THE THREAD
The LORD breaks the counsel of nations; he undoes the plans of peoples.Psalm 33:10 uses the same Hebrew verb translated “frustrate” in Ezra, and pairs it with the same word for “counsel” that underlies “purpose.” The echo reveals the conflict as an attempt to annul a plan through opposing counsel.
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