What Does Nehemiah 2:18 Mean in the King James?
Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
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 hand that brings goodness to one person becomes shared strength in many hands, and the work begins.
THE MEANING
God’s goodness rests on you and becomes visible as people gather strength for a concrete task. What reaches you as help moves through spoken words and into work done together. The verse holds receiving, strengthening, and building in one movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that divine help is only private reassurance dissolves here: it becomes shared capacity for concrete work.
THE ROOT
וַיְחַזְּקוּ
vayechazqu
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
Be firm or strong; make firm or strong.
“strengthened” in this verse is vayechazqu. This verb makes strength something the people actively put into their hands: resolve becomes capacity for work. The same root can describe becoming strong and making something strong, joining inner firmness to collective action.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Be strong; prevail.
חָזַק
This form shows strength as a state that can arise and endure, echoing the resolve behind the people’s answer.
chizzeq: Strengthen; reinforce.
חִזֵּק
This form makes strength an action directed toward others or something in need of support, as the people’s hands are made ready for the work.
לִבְנוֹת
livnot
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build; establish.
“build” in this verse is livnot. This root carries building as an act that gives something form. Here, the people’s words become a shared undertaking that can take shape beyond the moment of agreement.
ALSO GROWS
mivneh: Structure; building.
מִבְנֶה
The related noun names what the act of building brings into form.
nivneh: Be built; is built.
נִבְנֶה
This form shifts attention from the builders’ action to what takes shape through it.
THE PATTERN
Strength shared among people becomes capacity for work that none carries alone.
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.Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.THE THREAD
So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.The verb translated “built” is בָּנָה (banah), meaning “to build,” from the same root as “build” here. This verse shows the shared resolve of Nehemiah 2:18 taking form in a joined wall.
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