What Does Ezra 4:9 Mean in the King James?

Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions; the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites,

Ezra 4:9 · 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 letter makes resistance visible as a coalition: a list of offices and peoples gathered into one account.

THE MEANING

A rebuilding effort meets pressure from a network of officials, record keepers, and peoples named together in a written account. Resistance takes shape here as something organized and shared, not merely one person’s objection.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The obstruction comes from only one isolated opponent.

THE ROOT

סָפְרָא

sāphrā

GROWS FROM

ספר

Count, recount, record

The Aramaic word for “scribe” belongs to a root family that spans counting, recounting, and written records. The long list makes the people aligned with the letter countable and records them as a coalition.

ALSO GROWS

sēfer: Book, written record

סֵפֶר

The scribe’s work and the record belong to the same root family: the written account gives names a place together.

mispar: Number, count

מִסְפָּר

This branch brings out the counting within the list: the coalition is made legible as a body of named participants.

THE PATTERN

Resistance to a public work can gather into a coalition that acts through many names and voices.

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,

Ezra 4:4 · KJVPressure on the rebuilding appears as a collective effort to weaken those doing the work.

And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

Nehemiah 4:8 · KJVSeveral groups conspire together to obstruct the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

Acts 4:27 · KJVThe verse names rulers and peoples gathered together against one public work.

THE THREAD

Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

Psalm 56:8 · KJV

The Aramaic word for “scribe” and the Hebrew word for “book” share the S-P-R root family of counting and recording. Here the record gathers the names of a coalition; in the psalm, the same root family holds a person’s wanderings and tears.

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