What Does Nehemiah 13:13 Mean in the King James?
And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah: for they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their brethren.
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
Here, “faithful” means steady enough to be entrusted with the movement of shared provision.
THE MEANING
Faithfulness takes shape in dependable hands through which shared provision reaches people. What is held and what is given are joined by trust. Here, reliability becomes something others can count on because it helps them receive their share.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the idea that faithfulness is merely private conviction or an honorable label; here it is dependable care that helps shared provision reach others.
THE ROOT
נֶאֱמָנִים
ne'emanim
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm, steady, or reliable.
The word rendered “faithful” carries the sense of firmness: these people are counted as those who hold steady. Their reliability becomes visible in a concrete responsibility, keeping provision moving to their kin.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Steadiness, trust, or reliability.
אֱמוּנָה
It shows that faithfulness shares its root with the idea of being steady enough to lean on.
amen: Truly; firm or established.
אָמֵן
The familiar affirmation carries the same sense of something being made firm and dependable.
לַחֲלֹק
laḥaloq
GROWS FROM
חלק
To divide into portions or apportion.
To distribute is to divide provision into portions that can be received. The verse links trustworthy character to the actual work of apportioning what is held for the community.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeleq: A portion, share, or part.
חֵלֶק
The shared portion is what distribution makes available to each person.
maḥaloqet: Division or dispute.
מַחֲלֹקֶת
The same root can name division that becomes conflict, while this verse shows apportionment entrusted to people counted reliable.
THE PATTERN
Trust becomes visible when entrusted responsibilities are carried by reliable people for the good of the community.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.THE THREAD
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.The word translated “steady” here is אֱמוּנָה (emunah), “steadiness, trust,” from the same root אמן (aman) as “faithful” in Nehemiah. In one verse the root describes hands held steady by others; in the other it describes people trusted to keep provision moving.
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