What Does Nehemiah 2:20 Mean in the King James?
Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.
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
Prosperity here is forward movement into building, while those contesting that future are denied a share in Jerusalem’s wholeness.
THE MEANING
The God of heaven is the source of the work’s progress, and those who serve answer by rising to build. The verse draws a sharp boundary in Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim): the challengers have no portion, claim, or memorial there. The city’s name echoes shalom (שָׁלוֹם, wholeness), making the denied share a place in the wholeness being built.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every opposing voice has an equal claim over what is being built: the verse locates the work’s legitimacy in God and in the servants who rise to do it.
THE ROOT
יַצְלִיחַ
yatsliach
GROWS FROM
צלח
ts-l-ḥ
To advance, move forward successfully.
“prosper” in this verse is yatsliach. The verse presents prosperity as movement God brings about, not merely a status to possess. The same root can describe a forceful advance, so the word leads naturally into the servants’ next action: rising and building.
ALSO GROWS
yatsliach: He causes to prosper or advance.
יַצְלִיחַ
This is the form used here: God is named as the one who brings the work forward.
vatitzlach: Came powerfully upon; advanced.
וַתִּצְלַח
In Judges 14:6 this form describes a forceful arrival, showing the root’s sense of movement in addition to success.
וּבָנִינוּ
uvaninu
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
To build, establish, or set up.
“build” in this verse is uvaninu. The servants’ response to God’s advancement is not a claim or a boast but the concrete work of building. The Hebrew root holds both the action and its result: raising something into an established structure.
ALSO GROWS
banah: To build or establish.
בָּנָה
This is the core action the servants say they will take.
binyan: A building or structure.
בִּנְיָן
The related noun makes visible the outcome carried inside the verb: work that takes form and stands.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim echoes shalom, wholeness. The verse’s denial of portion, right, and memorial is a boundary around who shares in that wholeness and its building.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This echo in the city’s name makes Jerusalem more than a location: it is named with the language of wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This adjective shows the root’s sense of being sound and complete, the nature carried by the name’s echo.
THE PATTERN
A work advances when human building is held within the work God initiates and sustains.
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.THE THREAD
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.The word rendered “shall prosper” in both verses comes from צלח (ts-l-ḥ), to advance or succeed. Psalm 1 pictures that advance as fruit arriving in season; Nehemiah names it as a community rising to build.
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