What Does Ezra 5:3 Mean?
At that time came to them Tatnai, governor across the river, and Shethar-boznai, and their companions, and said thus to them, Who has set a decree for you to build this house, and to make this wall whole?
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
At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar-boznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?THE KEY
The Aramaic asks who “set a decree” for the work, exposing that the challenge is about the source of authority behind a house and wall being raised.
THE MEANING
A visible work of restoration brings its authority into question: who set the decree for this house to rise and this wall to be completed? The verse leaves the challenge unanswered, placing the source of the builders’ commission at its center.
THE ROOT
לְמִבְנֵא
limivne to build
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build, establish, or raise up.
The Aramaic verb belongs to the same root family as Hebrew binyan, “building,” and ben, “son.” The word-family can carry both the raising of a structure and the continuation of a household, giving “build this house” a resonance beyond construction alone.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: Building, structure.
בִּנְיָן
This noun makes visible the thing the builders’ verb brings into being.
ben: Son; a child who continues a household.
בֵּן
Its traditional connection to the build-root links building with the continuance of a family.
טְעֵם
teʿem decree or
GROWS FROM
טעם
In Aramaic, to decree or issue an order; its Hebrew cognate range includes taste and discernment.
The Aramaic phrase asks who “set” this decree for them, focusing the challenge on the decision that authorizes the work. The Hebrew cognate’s sense of discernment is an echo across the shared root, while the word here specifically means an order or decree.
ALSO GROWS
teʿem: Decree, order.
טְעֵם
This is the Aramaic word behind the question about who authorized the construction.
taʿam: Taste; by extension, discernment or judgment.
טַעַם
The cognate range adds a shade of considered judgment to the question of who set the order.
THE PATTERN
When visible work is challenged, the dispute turns on who authorized it.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, "What is this word that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?"And when they had stood them in the midst, they asked, "By what strength, or by what nature, have you done this?"And when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?THE THREAD
And thus they returned an answer to us, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we build the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and raised.The reply names the God of heaven and earth as the builders’ authority and describes the work as the rebuilding of an already established house. The shared Aramaic root בנה (b-n-h; banah, “build”) ties their answer directly to the question.
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