What Does Ezra 4:2 Mean in the King James?

Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.

Ezra 4:2 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The speakers ground their bid to build together in a shared search and shared sacrifice, making devotion their claimed basis for belonging.

THE MEANING

A request for shared work comes wrapped in shared devotion: “we seek your God, as ye do” and “we do sacrifice unto him.” Seeking and sacrifice are the speakers’ stated grounds for standing beside you; the verse lets you hear those claims without making their inner direction transparent.

THE ROOT

נִדְרֹשׁ

nidrosh

GROWS FROM

דָּרַשׁ

darash

To seek, inquire, or search out.

“seek” in this verse is nidrosh. The form nidrosh names seeking as an active search, not merely a label of belonging. The verse places that search beside sacrifice, so the speakers’ appeal rests on both a stated direction and a stated practice.

ALSO GROWS

doresh: One who seeks or inquires.

דֹּרֵשׁ

The seeker is named by the ongoing direction of their attention, giving “we seek” the sense of an orientation.

midrash: An inquiry or exposition built through searching the text.

מִדְרָשׁ

This branch preserves the root’s sense of seeking through examination, adding depth to the speakers’ claim that they seek God.

זֹבְחִים

zovchim

GROWS FROM

זָבַח

zabach

To slaughter or offer sacrifice.

The speakers describe sacrifice as an established practice and use it as evidence of shared devotion. The same root names both the act and its offering, showing how their claim joins worship to visible practice.

ALSO GROWS

zebach: A sacrifice or sacrificial offering.

זֶבַח

The offering gives a concrete form to the speakers’ stated devotion.

mizbeach: An altar, the place of sacrifice.

מִזְבֵּחַ

The altar extends the root from the act of offering to the place organized around it.

THE PATTERN

A claim of devotion takes shape in the direction of seeking and the actions joined to it.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13 · KJVSeeking is shown as a wholehearted search, giving the word depth beyond a claim of affiliation.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 7:21 · KJVThe verse sets spoken devotion beside the action that gives it shape.

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James 2:18 · KJVThe claimed inward orientation becomes visible through what is done.

THE THREAD

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Psalm 34:10 · KJV

“They that seek the LORD” uses the same Hebrew root, darash, as “we seek your God” here. Psalm 34 links that search to what the seekers find, opening the word from a stated claim into an orientation with a consequence.

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