What Does Nehemiah 3:1 Mean in the King James?
Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.
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 Sheep Gate is the first structure rebuilt, and it is set apart: restoration begins at the point of entry.
THE MEANING
Restoration reaches the threshold itself: people rise together, rebuild the Sheep Gate, and set it apart. The place where the flock enters belongs to the work’s sacred order; passage and consecration meet in the same structure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only people or inward intentions can be set apart: the gate itself is consecrated.
THE ROOT
אֶלְיָשִׁיב
Eliashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn, return; in causative forms, bring back or restore.
Eliashib joins El, “God,” with yashiv, “he restores” or “he brings back.” The name carries restoration into the scene before the gate is rebuilt: its overseer bears the nature of return.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back, return
שׁוּב
This is the seed within the name, linking Eliashib to the return at the heart of restoration.
hēshîv: Bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form expresses the restoring sense carried in Eliashib’s name and echoed by the rebuilding.
קִדְּשׁוּהוּ
qiddēshūhū
GROWS FROM
קָדַשׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart; mark as distinct for a sacred purpose.
“sanctified” in this verse is qiddēshūhū. The priests set apart the gate, then the work extends to the tower. The same root names both the act of setting apart and what is set apart, so consecration reaches the built threshold itself.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
Names the condition applied to the gate and tower through the act of consecration.
qodesh: Set-apartness; sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
Shows the quality created by the verb: the structure is included in what is set apart.
THE PATTERN
Gates mark and govern the passage into a place or way.
This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:THE THREAD
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.Nehemiah names a physical gate for the sheep; Jesus uses the same sheep-and-door image to name himself. The rebuilt threshold opens into a living image of access centered on the sheep’s door.
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