What Does Nehemiah 10:20 Mean in the King James?

Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

Nehemiah 10:20 · 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.

THE KEY

The roster includes a name from the root of wholeness: the covenant’s completion is carried by particular people.

THE MEANING

The verse presents commitment through particular people, naming them one by one. In the shared covenant of this chapter, participation has faces and names, not just a general promise. Meshullam’s name carries the root’s sense of wholeness and completion into the roll call.

THE ROOT

מְשֻׁלָּם

Meshullam

GROWS FROM

שלם

sh-l-m

To be complete or whole; to repay or make restitution.

The name ⁨מְשֻׁלָּם⁩ (Meshullam, “recompensed”) comes from ⁨שָׁלַם⁩ (shalam, “to be complete or whole; to repay”). Its root also forms ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, “wholeness, peace”), joining the name of one person in this list to a word-family of completion.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, completeness; also peace.

שָׁלוֹם

This branch carries the root’s sense of wholeness into the life shared between people.

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

It makes the root’s idea of completion audible within Meshullam’s name.

shillem: He repaid or made restitution.

שִׁלֵּם

This branch shows how the same root can express making good or completing what is owed, a sense carried by the name Meshullam.

THE PATTERN

A shared commitment becomes visible through the people who enter and sustain it.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Joshua 24:25 · KJVA covenant takes form through the people who enter it together.

And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;

2 Chronicles 15:12 · KJVThe shared commitment becomes concrete in the people who bind themselves to it.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Acts 2:42 · KJVA community’s commitment is visible in what its members continue to share.

THE THREAD

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Psalm 122:6 · KJV

The name ⁨מְשֻׁלָּם⁩ (Meshullam, “recompensed”) comes from ⁨שָׁלַם⁩ (shalam, “to be complete or whole; repay”), the same root family as ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, “wholeness, peace”). Psalm 122:6 gives that shared root a communal horizon: the wholeness held in one name is voiced as a hope for a city.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us