What Does Nehemiah 3:13 Mean in the King James?
The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.
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
What English calls “repair” here is the Hebrew act of strengthening: the passage is made firm from the valley gate all the way to the dung gate.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the full scale of repair in view: a gate, its doors, locks, and bars, then a thousand cubits of wall reaching to the dung gate. The people who dwell in Zanoah build and secure this passage, from the valley entrance to the city’s refuse gate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that restoring a passage means fixing only its opening falls away here: the work includes its doors, locks, bars, and the long stretch of wall beyond it.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיק
heḥĕzîq
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
Be strong; strengthen; take hold or hold fast.
The verb rendered “repaired” carries the force of strengthening and making firm. The work described is not only patching a damaged opening; it gives the passage strength to hold.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This branch makes the quality of the repair visible: the gate is made strong.
wayḥazzequ: They strengthened; “they strengthened their hands” (Nehemiah 2:18).
וַיְחַזְּקוּ
The same root links the builders’ strengthened hands with the strengthened gate.
חָנוּן
ḥānûn
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
Show favor; be gracious.
Hanun’s name comes from the root for showing favor, so the name carries a quality rather than functioning as a bare label. That favor-bearing name stands among the people who strengthen the city’s passage.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This noun shares Hanun’s root and gathers its meaning into a word for favor.
weḥannōtî: I will be gracious (Exodus 33:19).
וְחַנֹּתִי
The verbal form shows the root as an act of giving favor, the quality compressed in Hanun’s name.
יֹשְׁבֵי
yōšĕvê
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-š-b
Sit, remain, settle, dwell.
The word for “inhabitants” comes from the root for dwelling and remaining. The verse places the builders as people rooted in Zanoah: the community that dwells there also gives its entrance and wall strength.
ALSO GROWS
môšāb: Dwelling, settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch names a settled place, echoing the residents whose hands rebuild its boundary.
yešîbâ: A sitting or session; a place of study.
יְשִׁיבָה
It preserves the root’s image of sitting and remaining, the same settled quality carried by “inhabitants.”
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes shape through shared rebuilding that makes a damaged structure hold together again.
So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:THE THREAD
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.“Strengthened” here and “repaired” in the valley gate verse come from the same root, חזק (ḥazaq): to strengthen, make firm, or hold fast. The root joins the builders’ hands to the structure they build.
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