What Does Nehemiah 1:3 Mean in the King James?
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
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 translated “remnant” shares its Hebrew root with “are left,” making survival the verse’s repeated note as Jerusalem’s name carries wholeness into a report of breach and fire.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present reality in which people remain under great affliction and reproach while their shared protections lie breached and burned. The ruin is not softened, and the remnant is not erased: both conditions stand together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a breached city means no people remain is false here: the wall and gates are destroyed, but the remnant is still there.
THE ROOT
הַנִּשְׁאָרִים
han-nish'arim
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
remain; be left over
“remnant / are left” in this verse is han-nish'arim. The phrase repeats שאר (sh-ʾ-r, “remain / be left over”) in “the remnant” and “are left.” That repetition makes the survivors’ continued presence audible alongside the affliction, shame, and ruined defenses.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: remnant, remainder
שְׁאֵרִית
This noun from the same root names what remains after loss, bringing the verse’s repeated idea into a single word.
nish'ar: one who remains, is left
נִשְׁאָר
This verb form echoes the verse’s “are left,” showing that “remnant” and “left” grow from the same seed.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
wholeness, completeness, carried in the city’s name
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”). Here that name stands beside breached walls and burned gates, placing the language of wholeness alongside its visible rupture without concealing the ruin.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name, set in sharp relation to the city’s broken defenses.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
The branch brings the sense of completeness into view as the verse describes the city’s visible breach.
מְפֹרָצֶת
meforatset
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ts
break through; burst open; make a breach
“broken down” in this verse is meforatset. The wall’s condition belongs to פרץ (parats, “break through / burst open”). Elsewhere this same root can name bursting outward and spreading; here it names a breach that leaves the people exposed.
ALSO GROWS
perets: breach, break
פֶּרֶץ
This noun from the same root makes the damage to Jerusalem’s wall a specific opening in its defenses.
parats: burst forth, spread
פָּרַץ
This branch shares the image of a boundary giving way, while the verse holds the painful consequence of that breach plainly.
THE PATTERN
Even amid devastation and collapse, scripture names a remainder that is still present.
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.THE THREAD
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.Genesis uses שְׁאֵרִית (she’erit, “remnant”) where the KJV says “posterity”; it grows from the same שאר (sh-ʾ-r, “remain / be left over”) root heard in Nehemiah’s “remnant ... are left.” Nehemiah’s people are both those still left amid loss and a remainder whose presence continues.
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