What Does Ezra 4:21 Mean in the King James?
Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me.
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 order suspends the city’s building, but “until another commandment” leaves the halt open to a new decision.
THE MEANING
A work can be halted by a command, yet this halt is bounded by the phrase “until another commandment”: the stoppage is real, but it is not declared final. The verse speaks wherever something shared remains unfinished under another’s authority, with its next movement depending on a new decision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A delay means the work is over.
THE ROOT
טְּעֵם
ṭĕʿēm
GROWS FROM
טעם
ṭʿm
Taste; by extension, discern or judge. In Aramaic, the word also means a decree or decision.
English separates “commandment” from “taste,” but the Aramaic keeps both in the טעם word-family. The decree carries a shade of judgment and discernment beyond a bare command.
ALSO GROWS
ṭĕʿēm: An authoritative decision or command.
טְּעֵם
This is the word that makes the city’s building stop until a new decision is issued.
biṭʿēm: Taste or experience by the mouth.
בִּטְעֵם
This branch shows the same root extending from decree and judgment to sensory discernment.
THE PATTERN
A ruling can halt or release a work, so its course turns on who has authority to issue the next word.
Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power.Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place. Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered.And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.THE THREAD
Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.The Aramaic behind Ezra’s “commandment” belongs to טעם, the same root behind the word rendered “tasted” here. English separates a decree from sensory tasting, while the Aramaic word-family keeps judgment and discernment connected.
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