What Does Nehemiah 13:12 Mean in the King James?
Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.
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 verse pictures shared wholeness as a measured part of the harvest made to enter a common store.
THE MEANING
Provision becomes tangible when the community’s share reaches a place of common keeping. Grain, new wine, and oil bring food, celebration, and daily sustenance into the same store.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred has no place in material provision; here, the goods that sustain life are brought into the treasury.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֵׂר
maʿaser
GROWS FROM
עשר
ten; a tenth
The word translated “tithe” means a tenth: a measured share of the harvest. English can make it sound like an abstract religious payment, while the Hebrew names a specific portion entering shared keeping.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeser: ten
עֶשֶׂר
It names the number held inside the word for tithe.
ʿasiri: tenth
עֲשִׂירִי
It makes the same root’s measured proportion explicit.
הֵבִיאוּ
heviʾu
GROWS FROM
בוא
come, enter
“brought” in this verse is heviʾu. The Hebrew form carries the sense of causing something to come in. The produce does not merely change hands; it arrives at the place where the community keeps its provision.
ALSO GROWS
bo: come, enter
בּוֹא
This is the root’s basic movement, which “brought” gives a causative form.
mavo: entrance, approach
מָבוֹא
It echoes the movement toward a place of arrival.
הָאוֹצָרוֹת
haʾotsarot
GROWS FROM
אצר
store up, lay up
The word for treasuries carries the idea of storing, not just possessing a container. Grain, wine, and oil become a kept reserve, gathered together for shared life.
ALSO GROWS
ʾatsar: store up, treasure
אָצַר
The verb shows the action contained in the treasury’s purpose.
ʾotsar: treasury, storehouse
אוֹצָר
This singular form names the place where what is gathered is kept.
THE PATTERN
Provision for shared life is sustained when what is produced is gathered into a common store.
At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.THE THREAD
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.The Hebrew behind “bring” in both verses comes from בוא (bo), “come, enter,” in a form meaning to cause something to come in. Both verses pair that movement with a storehouse: the share of the harvest arrives where provision is kept.
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