What Does Nehemiah 13:28 Mean in the King James?
And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.
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 root that names fleeing becomes an action that makes someone flee, turning a marriage tie into a narrated expulsion.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a family connection and a severing together: a man is linked to the high priest’s line by birth and to Sanballat by marriage, then Nehemiah drives him away. The close bond does not soften the expulsion; the man is sent out of Nehemiah’s presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that shared lineage guarantees shared belonging: this man is named within the high priest’s family and still is driven away.
THE ROOT
וָאַבְרִיחֵהוּ
va’avriḥēhû
GROWS FROM
ברח
Flee, escape; in the causative form, make someone flee.
“chased” in this verse is va’avriḥēhû. The Hebrew verb is causative: Nehemiah says he made the man flee. The same root can name a person’s escape or the force that drives him out, holding both sides of departure in one seed.
ALSO GROWS
bāraḥ: Flee, escape.
בָּרַח
This is the root’s basic movement: a person leaves by fleeing.
hivrîaḥ: Make someone flee; drive away.
הִבְרִיחַ
This causative form names the action Nehemiah takes in the verse.
חָתָן
ḥātān
GROWS FROM
חתן
Enter kinship through marriage; become related as a son-in-law.
“son in law” in this verse is ḥātān. The term names a person incorporated into another household through marriage. Set beside the priestly descent, it gives two forms of belonging before the verse records expulsion.
ALSO GROWS
ḥātān: Bridegroom; son-in-law.
חָתָן
This is the marriage relationship tying the man to Sanballat.
ḥōtēn: Father-in-law.
חֹתֵן
This is the counterpart kinship term from the same root, showing the reciprocal family tie marriage creates.
THE PATTERN
Kinship can carry conflict into the household, where allegiance may bend or a bond may be severed.
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.THE THREAD
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.The Hebrew root ברח (bāraḥ), meaning flee or escape, appears here as “fled.” Nehemiah uses its causative form: Genesis shows a woman fleeing from another’s presence, while Nehemiah makes a man flee from his.
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