What Does Ezra 6:8 Mean?
Moreover I set a decree for what you shall do to these gray-haired ones of the Jews for the building of this house of God. Out of the king's goods, even from the tribute across the river, let the outgoings be given forthwith to these men, that they be not hindered.
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
Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered.THE KEY
The decree directs the king’s wealth toward the work so that it cannot be stopped.
THE MEANING
A work of building what belongs to God can receive provision from beyond the builders’ own hands. Here, resources held by authority are directed to the work so that it is not stopped.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The builders must possess the power and resources themselves or the work must stop. Here, the means arrive from a treasury they do not control.
THE ROOT
לְבַטָּלָה
lebatala
GROWS FROM
בטל
bṭl
To cease, stop, or bring to a halt.
English “hindered” can suggest difficulty along the way, but בטל names cessation. The same root describes work being forcibly stopped elsewhere in Ezra, so this decree’s provision answers the threat of the work coming to a halt.
ALSO GROWS
lebatala: To make cease or stop.
לבטלא
Ezra 4:21 uses this form in a command to stop the builders, exposing the force carried by “hindered” here.
betelat: Ceased.
בטלת
The same root names the work’s cessation in Ezra 4:24, making this verse’s support a direct answer to that stoppage.
THE PATTERN
Resources placed in a work’s path can let it continue toward its intended end.
And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's grove, that he may give me wood to make beams for the gates of the palace which belongs to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house I will enter. And the king gave me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.And God is able to make all favor overflow toward you, so that you, always holding all you need in everything, may overflow into every good work.THE THREAD
Then the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem stood idle. So it stood idle until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.The same Aramaic root בטל underlies “ceased” here and “hindered” in Ezra 6:8: one names a work stopped, the other names the state the decree prevents. Seeing the same seed in both turns the order for funding into a direct answer to cessation.
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