What Does Nehemiah 13:23 Mean in the King James?
In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
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 Hebrew pictures these men as settling the women in their homes: marriage becomes dwelling, and dwelling makes belonging shared.
THE MEANING
This verse makes the household a place where communal identity takes shape: these men have made women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab part of their homes. Intimacy joins distinct inheritances into shared life, so belonging is shaped not only by public allegiance but by whom you make family.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that marriage is only a private bond with no bearing on communal identity.
THE ROOT
הֹשִׁיבוּ
hoshivu
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, remain, or dwell.
The Hebrew form behind “married” is hoshivu, “they settled,” from yashav, “to sit or dwell.” The wording lets the household arrangement show through: the women are established within the men’s homes, and dwelling becomes an act of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
This basic form makes dwelling the seed beneath the verse’s wording for marriage.
moshav: A dwelling place or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch shows how the root can name the place where people settle together.
yoshev: An inhabitant, one who dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
This branch connects dwelling to belonging among the people who share a place.
THE PATTERN
Household bonds draw distinct lives into shared kinship and shape what passes through a family.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.THE THREAD
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.The Hebrew behind “settled” in Nehemiah and “setteth” here comes from ישב (yashav), “to sit or dwell.” The shared root opens the household language into a wider image: dwelling is how the solitary are placed among a people.
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