What Does Esther 4:6 Mean in the King James?
So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the king’s gate.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “street” means a broad open place: the palace messenger steps out to meet Mordecai directly before the king’s gate.
THE MEANING
The messenger crosses toward someone at a distance from the seat of power. Their meeting takes place in the city’s broad space, before the king’s gate, where separation becomes direct encounter. What stands outside the palace is still within reach of a message.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that someone outside the gate cannot be met until they enter it; here the messenger goes out to meet Mordecai.
THE ROOT
רְחוֹב
rechov
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or wide; to make room.
The Hebrew word for street grows from רחב, the root of breadth and room. It presents this meeting not merely along a road, but in an open place before the king’s gate.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Broad, wide.
רָחָב
This adjective makes the breadth inside “street” visible: the encounter happens in an opened space.
hirchiv: To widen, make room.
הִרְחִיב
This form shows breadth as an opening made, echoing the space where Hatach meets Mordecai.
Rechovot: Broad places; room.
רְחֹבוֹת
The same root names an open place and, in Genesis 26:22, the room made for someone.
THE PATTERN
A message crosses a boundary when one person goes out to meet another at the threshold.
Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?THE THREAD
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.רְחוֹב (rechov, broad place or street) and רְחֹבוֹת (Rechovot, broad places) grow from רחב (rachav, to be broad or make room). In Genesis, the same root names room made available; here it names the open space where Hatach meets Mordecai before the gate.
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