What Does Ezra 5:16 Mean?
Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, and yet it is not finished.
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
Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.THE KEY
The word for “finished” echoes the root of wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name: the house is still being built in the city of wholeness.
THE MEANING
A sacred beginning can be real while the work remains incomplete. The verse holds both truths together: the foundation is laid, and the house is still being built.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An unfinished work does not mean its beginning was false or meaningless.
THE ROOT
שְׁלִם
shlem
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole.
“not finished” in this verse is shlem. The Aramaic word translated “finished” comes from the same three-letter root as shalom, wholeness. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim) carries that same root, so the verse holds a striking tension: the house stands in the city of wholeness while its building remains incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the wholeness echoed in Jerusalem’s name, even as the house there remains unfinished.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It is the direct sense missing from the verse’s description of the house: the building is not yet complete.
shillem: To repay or make complete what is due.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch extends the root’s sense of completion into making something whole or settled.
THE PATTERN
A work can have a real beginning while its completion is still unfolding.
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will also finish it, and you will perceive that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.Being confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus the Anointed One.Fixing our sight on Jesus, the one who goes first and the perfecter of our self-commitment, who for the joy lying before him endured the cross, looking down on the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will also finish it, and you will perceive that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.Ezra names the house at the point where its foundation is laid but its building is not complete. Zechariah opens that image further: the foundation belongs to a work that continues toward its finish.
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