What Does Ezra 1:4 Mean in the King James?
And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
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 verse calls help a lifting: the people around the traveler become weight-bearing support for the journey toward wholeness.
THE MEANING
Wherever you are living, the people around you become provision for your movement toward the house of God in Jerusalem, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim, carrying the name’s association with שָׁלוֹם, shalom, wholeness). They offer concrete resources for the traveler and a willing gift for the shared house; the journey is carried by both.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that leaving means carrying everything alone: the place around you can supply what the journey requires.
THE ROOT
יִנְשָׂאֻהוּ
yinsa'uhu
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
lift, carry, bear
The verb behind “help him” means “they will lift or carry him,” so help is taking up another person’s weight. The silver, gold, goods, animals, and gift are material forms of that carrying.
ALSO GROWS
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
The same root names what is carried, joining the act of lifting someone to bearing a load.
nasi: leader, prince
נָשִׂיא
This word can name a person raised to leadership, carrying the root’s sense of lifting into a social image.
גָּר
gar
GROWS FROM
גור
gur
dwell as a sojourner; reside temporarily
“sojourneth” in this verse is gar. The wording holds temporary dwelling and movement together: the sojourner has a real place where people know them. The verse makes that place a source of tangible support.
ALSO GROWS
ger: sojourner, resident outsider
גֵּר
The root names both the person who dwells away from a home place and the act of sojourning.
magur: sojourning, residence
מָגוּר
This related noun names the sojourn or dwelling itself, linking the traveler to the place that can support them.
הַנְּדָבָה
hanedavah
GROWS FROM
נדב
nadav
be willing; offer freely
“freewill offering” in this verse is hanedavah. The offering’s root carries willing action. The voluntary gift stands beside practical supplies for the traveler, making generosity part of both the journey and the house’s provision.
ALSO GROWS
nadiv: willing, generous; a noble person
נָדִיב
This word describes a person marked by the willing generosity that gives the offering its character.
hitnadev: volunteer, offer oneself willingly
הִתְנַדֵּב
The verb makes the free choice within the offering visible: it is given by willingness.
THE PATTERN
Provision is carried across transitions when people make their abundance available to someone in need.
And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:THE THREAD
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.Ezra’s verb for “help him” comes from נשא (nasa, lift, carry, bear), the same root used in Isaiah’s “I will bear.” Ezra shows this carrying moving through a local community; Isaiah shows it sustaining the reader through an entire life.
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