What Does Ezra 3:13 Mean in the King James?
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
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
A new beginning can make grief and joy rise together so completely that neither sound can be separated from the other.
THE MEANING
A beginning can carry loss and relief in the same moment. Here, joy does not erase what is mourned, and grief does not make the joy unreal; both are audible in one shared cry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that real joy requires grief to be over, or that grief proves joy is absent. Here both are present in the same people at the same time.
THE ROOT
מַכִּירִים
makkirim
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To recognize or identify as distinct; in related forms, to treat as foreign.
The word translated “discern” means recognizing one thing as distinct from another. The same consonants form נָכְרִי (nokhri), “stranger” or “foreigner,” linking recognition with the sense of what is unfamiliar; here, the crowd cannot identify where the sound of joy ends and weeping begins.
ALSO GROWS
hikkir: Recognize, identify.
הִכִּיר
This verb shows that discerning is a matter of recognizing what is distinct, exactly what the people cannot do with the two sounds.
nokhri: Stranger, foreigner.
נָכְרִי
The same root family connects recognition with foreignness, sharpening the image of sounds whose emotional identities have become hard to tell apart.
תְּרוּעָה
teru'ah
GROWS FROM
רוע
r-w-ʿ
To raise a loud cry or shout.
The verse names a תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah), then uses the related verb מְרִיעִים (meri’im), “shouting.” The root can carry a jubilant cry or an alarm, so the shout itself does not hold only one emotional shade; here, joy and grief fill the same public sound.
ALSO GROWS
ruaʿ: To shout, raise a cry.
רוּעַ
This verbal root is the action behind the crowd’s loud collective sound.
meri'im: Shouting, raising a cry.
מְרִיעִים
This form appears in the verse itself, turning the named shout into the people’s ongoing action.
THE PATTERN
At the threshold of restoration, grief and joy can sound together before either feeling gives way.
But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.THE THREAD
A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.Ezra’s “shouted” and Psalm’s “make a joyful noise” come from the same root, רוע (ruaʿ), “to raise a cry.” The shared root lets the crowd’s sound remain one shout even when joy and grief are both inside it.
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