What Does Ezra 5:6 Mean?
The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor across the river, and Shethar-boznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, who were across the river, sent to Darius the king.
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
The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar-boznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, which were on this side the river, sent unto Darius the king:THE KEY
The word “sent” shares a root with “release”: what leaves one hand can cross a boundary and reach authority.
THE MEANING
What is sent carries a matter beyond the boundary of those holding it. Here, a written account places local events before distant authority, where a response becomes possible.
THE ROOT
שְׁלַחוּ
šĕlaḥû
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
To send forth, send away, or release.
The Aramaic verb here shares the Semitic root שלח (š-l-ḥ) with Hebrew words for sending forth and releasing. English “sent” can sound like mere delivery; the root carries the movement of something let out from one domain and across a boundary into another.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Send away; release.
שַׁלַּח
In Exodus 5:1, Pharaoh is told to let the people go; the root makes sending away and release part of the same movement.
wayeshallaḥ: And he sent forth.
וַיְשַׁלַּח
In Genesis 8:8, Noah sends forth a dove; as here, something is released from one place to travel beyond it.
THE PATTERN
Sending carries a person or message beyond its point of origin into a new sphere where it can be seen or acted upon.
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders who were carried away, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.And he sent a dove from him, to see whether the waters had grown light from upon the face of the ground.Then the word about these things came to the ears of the assembly that was in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Ezra’s Aramaic “sent” and Exodus’s Hebrew שַׁלַּח (shallach, “send away; release”) share the root שלח (š-l-ḥ). Here a letter crosses toward the king; there, people are to be released from Pharaoh’s hold.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us