What Does Ezra 8:25 Mean?
And I weighed out to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the lifted offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his lords, and all Israel present there, had lifted.
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 weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered:THE KEY
What is lifted up as an offering is also weighed: sacred trust includes careful measure.
THE MEANING
This verse shows sacred trust in material form: silver, gold, and vessels are weighed and placed in human hands. The gift is both raised as an offering and handled with exactness; devotion and transparent measure belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that careful accounting diminishes devotion: here, weighing is part of how the offering is entrusted.
THE ROOT
וָאֶשְׁקוֹל
va'eshqol
GROWS FROM
שקל
shaqal
To weigh or measure by weight.
“weighed out” in this verse is va'eshqol. The Hebrew verb for weighing shares its root with שֶׁקֶל (sheqel), a unit of weight, so value is made accountable through a real measure. English can make “weighed” sound like routine handling; the root links it to the standard by which the gift’s amount is known.
ALSO GROWS
sheqel: Shekel; a unit of weight and, by extension, a unit of money.
שֶׁקֶל
Its name preserves the root’s link between weighing and value.
mishqal: Weight or measured amount.
מִשְׁקָל
It shows the same root naming not only the act of weighing but the measure that results.
הֵרִימוּ
herimu
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
To rise or be high; in this verb form, to lift up.
The word rendered “offered” literally says the contributors lifted the gift up. The related noun תְּרוּמָה (terumah) names an offering or contribution as something lifted up and set apart.
ALSO GROWS
rum: To rise or be high.
רוּם
It reveals the upward sense beneath the act of giving.
terumah: Offering or contribution; a portion lifted up.
תְּרוּמָה
The verse calls the dedicated contribution an offering while describing the givers as lifting it up.
THE PATTERN
Trust in sacred gifts becomes visible through just measures and open handling.
This they shall give, everyone who crosses over among those counted, half a shekel by the shekel of the set apart place, twenty gerahs to the shekel; half a shekel shall be the lifted offering for the LORD.Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.Looking ahead to what is beautiful, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of people.THE THREAD
I even weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels a hundred talents, and of gold a hundred talents.The verb וָאֶשְׁקוֹל (va’eshqol, “I weighed”), from שקל (shaqal, “to weigh”), appears again with the precise quantities. The next verse makes the measure concrete: entrusted care includes knowing exactly what has been placed in someone’s hands.
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