What Does Ezra 7:16 Mean?
And all the silver and gold that you can find in all the province of Babylon, with the willing offering of the people and the priests, who freely give for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem.
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 all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:THE KEY
The Aramaic uses one root for both the “freewill offering” and the people and priests “offering willingly,” binding the gift to the freedom with which it is given.
THE MEANING
Silver and gold gathered across the province enter a shared act of giving for the house of their God in Jerusalem. The verse places the people’s and priests’ willingness alongside the wealth itself: the gift is freely offered, not merely collected.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Provision for the house of God does not have to come through compulsion; this verse describes the people and priests as giving willingly.
THE ROOT
מִתְנַדְּבִין
mitnaddəvīn
GROWS FROM
נדב
To volunteer or offer freely; to give of one’s own accord.
“willing offering” in this verse is mitnaddəvīn. The Aramaic repeats the root נדב in “freewill offering” and “offering willingly.” English makes these sound like separate ideas, but the verse links the gift and the willing act that brings it: both grow from the same impulse to give freely.
ALSO GROWS
hitnaddəvut: Voluntary giving or a freewill offering.
הִתְנַדְּבוּת
This is the noun rendered “freewill offering” in the verse, sharing its root with the priests’ willing action.
nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble.
נָדִיב
This branch connects generosity with a freely given disposition, illuminating the willingness named in the verse.
nedavah: A voluntary gift or freewill offering.
נְדָבָה
This Hebrew branch makes the shared root visible in another form of freely offered provision.
THE PATTERN
What is freely offered becomes provision for sacred work without compulsion.
The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman whose heart made them free-hearted to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.Then the people rejoiced, for they offered willingly, because with a whole heart they offered willingly to the LORD, and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
Then the people rejoiced, for they offered willingly, because with a whole heart they offered willingly to the LORD, and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.“Offered willingly” in Chronicles and the willing offering in Ezra share the root נדב, meaning to volunteer or offer freely. The same seed links the gift with the people’s own willingness to give.
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