What Does Ezra 5:16 Mean in the King James?
Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.
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 word for “finished” echoes the root of wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name: the house is still being built in the city of wholeness.
THE MEANING
A sacred beginning can be real while the work remains incomplete. The verse holds both truths together: the foundation is laid, and the house is still being built.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An unfinished work does not mean its beginning was false or meaningless.
THE ROOT
שְׁלִם
shlem
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole.
The Aramaic word translated “finished” comes from the same three-letter root as shalom, wholeness. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim) carries that same root, so the verse holds a striking tension: the house stands in the city of wholeness while its building remains incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the wholeness echoed in Jerusalem’s name, even as the house there remains unfinished.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It is the direct sense missing from the verse’s description of the house: the building is not yet complete.
shillem: To repay or make complete what is due.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch extends the root’s sense of completion into making something whole or settled.
THE PATTERN
A work can have a real beginning while its completion is still unfolding.
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.Ezra names the house at the point where its foundation is laid but its building is not complete. Zechariah opens that image further: the foundation belongs to a work that continues toward its finish.
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