What Does Ezra 10:17 Mean in the King James?
And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.
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 Hebrew says the matter reaches completion only when every man within its scope is accounted for.
THE MEANING
A difficult reckoning becomes complete only when every person within its stated scope is accounted for. Here the endpoint falls on the first day of a new month, while the sentence keeps the human weight visible in the men and wives it names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A painful reckoning can be called finished while some of the people involved remain unaccounted for.
THE ROOT
וַיְכַלּוּ
vayekhallū
GROWS FROM
כ־ל־ה
k-l-h
to be complete, bring to completion, or come to an end
The verb is active: they bring the matter to completion with every man named. The root gives “made an end” the force of a process reaching its endpoint across its full human scope.
ALSO GROWS
killah: to complete, finish, or bring to an end
כִּלָּה
This active form shows the work being brought to its endpoint.
kalah: to be complete or come to an end
כָּלָה
It shows completion as a state reached, alongside the verse’s action of completing the matter.
חֹדֶשׁ
ḥōdeš
GROWS FROM
ח־ד־שׁ
ḥ-d-sh
to be new or renew
The word for month carries the sense of newness and renewal. The verse dates the completion at the opening of a new cycle, holding an ending and a beginning at the same threshold.
ALSO GROWS
ḥādāš: new
חָדָשׁ
The shared root makes the month’s association with a fresh beginning audible.
ḥiddēš: to renew or make new
חִדֵּשׁ
This branch echoes the new cycle marked by the first day of the month.
THE PATTERN
Completion arrives when the whole stated scope of a work has been brought to its endpoint.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.THE THREAD
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.Both verses use כָּלָה (kalah, to be complete or bring to completion): Genesis applies it to the whole creation, while Ezra applies it to all the men within a painful reckoning. The shared root makes the scope of “finished” visible.
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