What Does Ezra 4:14 Mean in the King James?
Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour, therefore have we sent and certified the king;
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 KJV’s “maintenance” is literally palace salt: the speakers name their material dependence as the reason they guard the king’s honor.
THE MEANING
This verse shows loyalty speaking from dependence: those sustained by the palace say they cannot watch the king be exposed to dishonor. Their report carries both a claim of fidelity and the interest that sustains it; the source of their provision shapes what they protect.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a warning is impartial simply because it is presented as loyalty: the speakers disclose their material tie before making their case.
THE ROOT
מְלַח
melaḥ
GROWS FROM
מלח
m-l-ḥ
Salt; here, the speakers say they eat the palace’s salt and are sustained by it.
“Maintenance” makes the relationship sound like an abstract allowance. The Aramaic keeps salt in the image: their sustenance comes from the palace, and they make that dependence the ground for guarding the king’s honor.
ALSO GROWS
melaḥ: Salt.
מֶלַח
This is the concrete image beneath the verse’s claim of palace support.
berit melaḥ: Covenant of salt; a lasting covenantal bond.
בְּרִית מֶלַח
The same salt word elsewhere marks an enduring bond, giving the palace sustenance in this verse the force of an obligation.
שְׁלַחְנָא
šəlaḥnā
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
To send forth or dispatch; the related Hebrew root also carries the sense of release.
“sent” in this verse is šəlaḥnā. Their response takes the form of a sending: their claim of loyalty leaves them as an official message to the king. The word makes the report a deliberate act put into motion.
ALSO GROWS
šālaḥ: To send forth or release.
שָׁלַח
The report is not merely spoken among the palace servants; it is sent onward to the king.
šālīaḥ: A messenger; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
This branch brings the sending into focus as a message carried from the speakers to the king.
עַרְוַת
ʿarwat
GROWS FROM
ערה
ʿ-r-h
To uncover or lay bare; the related noun carries the sense of nakedness or exposure.
The Aramaic word beneath “dishonour” pictures exposure, not only a damaged reputation. The speakers present their report as preventing the king from being seen laid bare.
ALSO GROWS
ʿervāh: Nakedness; exposure or shame.
עֶרְוָה
This related form makes the concrete image beneath the king’s “dishonour” visible.
ʿārāh: To uncover or lay bare.
עָרָה
The verbal branch shows the movement inside the image: what is hidden becomes exposed.
THE PATTERN
Provision can bind service to the interests of the one who provides it.
All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.Numbers uses the same salt word in “covenant of salt,” where salt marks an enduring bond. Ezra’s speakers describe themselves as eating the palace’s salt, making their tie to the king part of the message they send.
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