What Does Ezra 5:8 Mean?
Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with rolled stones, and timber is set in the walls, and this work is being done swiftly, and it breaks through in their hands.
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
Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.THE KEY
The passage calls this the great God’s house, yet places its progress in human hands.
THE MEANING
The great God’s house takes shape in stone and timber, and its work moves forward and prospers in the hands that build it. The verse speaks now: sacred work can be visible in material effort and steady progress.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s work must happen apart from human labor; here, the work prospers in the builders’ hands.
THE ROOT
מִתְבְּנֵא
mitbene
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build, establish, make a structure.
“builded” in this verse is mitbene. The Aramaic verb describes the house as being built, while the verse names the stones, timber, and hands through which that takes form. The related Hebrew word בֵּן (ben, “son”) carries a household echo: building can reach beyond a structure to what a household brings forth.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: Building, structure.
בִּנְיָן
This names the formed structure that the verse shows taking shape from stone and timber.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
Its close sound and traditional link with בנה gives building a generative echo: a household can be built through its children.
עָבִידְתָּא
ʿăvîdtā
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work, do, serve.
The word for “work” comes from the same root that names serving and a servant. The verse therefore lets the construction itself carry the sound of service: the house is built through labor rendered by human hands.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavad: Serve, work.
עָבַד
The same root joins the builders’ labor to service.
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This branch shows how the root of the work also names the one who serves.
מַצְלַח
matzlaḥ
GROWS FROM
צלח
ṣ-l-ḥ
Advance, succeed, make headway.
“breaks through” in this verse is matzlaḥ. The word translated “prospereth” gives the work a sense of moving forward. Its root appears again when Ezra describes the builders prospering, so success is joined to the work’s advance as it is built.
ALSO GROWS
ṣālaḥ: Advance, succeed, prosper.
צָלַח
This verb names the forward movement carried by “prospereth.”
haṣlaḥāh: Success, prosperity.
הַצְלָחָה
This noun names the resulting success from the same root of advancing.
THE PATTERN
Work entrusted to human hands can become a visible structure and make headway.
Let the sweetness of the LORD our God be upon us, and set firm upon us the work of our hands; the work of our hands, set it firm.So we built the wall, and all the wall was tied together to half of it, for the people had heart to work.For we are fellow workers with God. You are God's field; you are God's building.THE THREAD
And the gray-haired ones of the Jews built, and they broke through by the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and made it whole, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.The Aramaic uses the same צלח (ṣ-l-ḥ, “advance, prosper”) root for “prospered” here as in Ezra 5:8. It appears alongside the builders’ progress, opening prosperity as the work advancing while it is being built.
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