What Does Ezra 5:6 Mean in the King James?
The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar-boznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, which were on this side the river, sent unto Darius 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 word “sent” shares a root with “release”: what leaves one hand can cross a boundary and reach authority.
THE MEANING
What is sent carries a matter beyond the boundary of those holding it. Here, a written account places local events before distant authority, where a response becomes possible.
THE ROOT
שְׁלַחוּ
šĕlaḥû
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
To send forth, send away, or release.
The Aramaic verb here shares the Semitic root שלח (š-l-ḥ) with Hebrew words for sending forth and releasing. English “sent” can sound like mere delivery; the root carries the movement of something let out from one domain and across a boundary into another.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Send away; release.
שַׁלַּח
In Exodus 5:1, Pharaoh is told to let the people go; the root makes sending away and release part of the same movement.
wayeshallaḥ: And he sent forth.
וַיְשַׁלַּח
In Genesis 8:8, Noah sends forth a dove; as here, something is released from one place to travel beyond it.
THE PATTERN
Sending carries a person or message beyond its point of origin into a new sphere where it can be seen or acted upon.
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.Ezra’s Aramaic “sent” and Exodus’s Hebrew שַׁלַּח (shallach, “send away; release”) share the root שלח (š-l-ḥ). Here a letter crosses toward the king; there, people are to be released from Pharaoh’s hold.
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