What Does Nehemiah 13:16 Mean in the King James?

There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 13:16 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew names both the goods and the selling from ⁨מ־כ־ר⁩ (sale), inside ⁨שַׁבָּת⁩ (Sabbath), whose root carries cessation.

THE MEANING

The market continues on a day whose name carries cessation. The sale reaches Judah’s children within Jerusalem, so the exchange involves more than the merchants who bring the goods.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The assumption that Sabbath commerce belongs only to outside traders falls away: the verse names Judah’s children among those receiving the goods.

THE ROOT

שַׁבָּת

shabbat

GROWS FROM

שבת

sh-b-t

To cease, stop, or desist.

English can make Sabbath sound only like the name of a day, while its root carries cessation inside the name. Here, trade continues where the word itself holds the sense of a stop.

ALSO GROWS

shavat: To cease, stop, or desist.

שָׁבַת

This verb makes the cessation within Sabbath explicit: the name of the day and the act of stopping share a root.

shabbaton: A Sabbath rest or complete cessation.

שַׁבָּתוֹן

This related form carries the same root into a term for a day of rest, deepening the contrast with the ongoing market.

מֶכֶר

mekher

GROWS FROM

מכר

m-k-r

To sell or transfer through a sale.

The Hebrew word translated “ware” is ⁨מֶכֶר⁩ (mekher, sale or merchandise), while “selling” is ⁨מֹכְרִים⁩ (mokhrim, selling), from the same root. English separates the stock from the action; Hebrew repeats sale-language against the cessation carried by ⁨שבת⁩.

ALSO GROWS

mokhrim: Selling; sellers.

מֹכְרִים

The word translated “selling” repeats the root of “ware,” linking the goods directly to the act of trade.

mimkar: Merchandise; something sold.

מִמְכָּר

This related form also names goods through their relation to a sale, echoing the verse’s repeated commercial language.

THE PATTERN

The Sabbath’s cessation reaches beyond individual labor into the community’s terms of exchange.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Exodus 20:10 · KJVThe cessation includes the household, workers, animals, and resident stranger, extending beyond one person’s schedule.

And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

Nehemiah 10:31 · KJVThe Sabbath’s pause reaches both sides of commerce: the verse names selling and the community’s refusal to buy.

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mark 2:27 · KJVThe Sabbath’s cessation serves human life, giving the pause a purpose beyond merely marking a day.

THE THREAD

And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

Nehemiah 10:31 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨שַׁבָּת⁩ (shabbat, Sabbath), while this verse pairs the day with an explicit refusal to buy what is sold. Read together, they show the exchange crossing the boundary through both selling and receiving.

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