What Does Ezra 6:21 Mean?
And the children of Israel, who had come back out of the exile, and all who had separated themselves to them from the uncleanness of the nations of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, ate.
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
And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,THE KEY
Separation from defilement turns toward a community of seekers and becomes visible in their shared meal.
THE MEANING
When you are drawn away from what defiles, the movement can carry you toward a people seeking the LORD. Belonging becomes tangible at their shared table: those who seek together eat together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that separation only creates distance dissolves here: the separated person turns toward the community of seekers and shares its meal.
THE ROOT
הַנִּבְדָּל
hannivdal
GROWS FROM
ב־ד־ל
to divide, distinguish, or separate
“separated” in this verse is hannivdal. The verse describes someone distinguished from what defiles, with the separation directed “unto them.” The root holds both a boundary and a direction: the person moves away from one way of belonging and toward a community seeking the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
wayyavdel: and he separated or divided
וַיַּבְדֵּל
This form appears when God separates light from darkness; the shared root gives separation the sense of making a distinction visible.
lehavdil: to distinguish or separate
לְהַבְדִּיל
This form names the act of drawing a distinction, illuminating how the verse’s separation marks a change in belonging.
לִדְרֹשׁ
lidrosh
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־שׁ
to seek, inquire, or pursue an answer
Seeking the LORD here gives the separation its direction: the people are not defined only by what they leave, but by whom they seek. The root carries the sense of an active turning toward, which leads into the shared meal.
ALSO GROWS
darash: to seek, inquire, or consult
דָּרַשׁ
This verb family links seeking the LORD with turning toward God’s presence and asking after him.
midrash: inquiry or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
This related word preserves the root’s movement of searching into a matter, echoing the verse’s deliberate seeking.
THE PATTERN
Separation directed toward worship opens into shared belonging and a common meal.
And when a sojourner dwells with you and will make the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised; then let him draw near and make it, and he will be as one who springs up in the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.THE THREAD
And you shall be set apart to me, for I, the LORD, am set apart, and I have separated you from the peoples, that you shall be mine.“Severed” carries the same badal root as Ezra’s “separated.” Here the boundary has an explicit direction: “that ye should be mine”; in Ezra, the separated people turn “unto them” and share their meal.
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