What Does Ezra 5:4 Mean?

Then we said to them thus, What are the names of the men who are making this building?

Ezra 5:4 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?

THE KEY

The Aramaic word for “men” belongs to the root of strength and prevailing, so the question turns attention to the force and identity behind the building.

THE MEANING

The question brings the builders into view along with the structure they raise. Their names disclose who is investing their strength in the work.

THE ROOT

גֻּבְרַיָּא

gubrayyā

GROWS FROM

גבר

To be strong, grow mighty, or prevail.

The verse’s Aramaic ⁨גֻּבְרַיָּא⁩ (gubrayyā, “men”) comes from ⁨גבר⁩, the root of strength and prevailing. English “men” leaves that connection quiet; here, the people behind the building are named through a word that carries the force they bring to it.

ALSO GROWS

gābar: To be strong; to prevail.

גָּבַר

This verb makes explicit the strength carried in the word for “men.”

gibbôr: Mighty one; strong person.

גִּבּוֹר

This noun shares the root’s consonants and echoes the strength-family behind the builders’ designation.

gevurah: Strength; might.

גְּבוּרָה

This word names the quality associated with the root, making the builders’ agency more visible.

THE PATTERN

Scripture ties building to the identities and labor of the people named as its makers.

See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the staff of Judah.

Exodus 31:2 · SDVThe builder is called by name before the work entrusted to him is described.

Then Eliashib the great priest rose with his brethren the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They set it apart and raised its doors. Up to the tower of Meah they set it apart, up to the tower of Hananeel.

Nehemiah 3:1 · SDVNamed people and their labor stand together in the account of what is built.

According to the favor of God that was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one watch how he builds on it.

1 Corinthians 3:10 · SDVThe building is linked to the people who build, and to the care they bring to their work.

THE THREAD

And Cush brought forth Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

Genesis 10:8 · SDV

Genesis uses ⁨גִּבּוֹר⁩ (gibbôr, “mighty one”), from the same ⁨גבר⁩ root family as Ezra’s Aramaic ⁨גֻּבְרַיָּא⁩ (gubrayyā, “men”). The shared root lets the word for the builders carry an undertone of strength and agency as the question asks who they are.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us