What Does Nehemiah 3:22 Mean in the King James?

And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain.

Nehemiah 3:22 · KJV

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 word translated “repaired” carries the force of strengthening: the wall is restored as people take their place in the work.

THE MEANING

This verse places repair within shared work: the priests from the plain take their turn on the wall. Their service appears as practical strengthening of a boundary the community depends on.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that sacred service is separate from practical repair: here, the priests’ service takes the form of strengthening a wall.

THE ROOT

הֶחֱזִיקוּ

heḥĕzîqû

GROWS FROM

חזק

To be strong, make firm, strengthen, or hold fast.

Within “repaired” sits the sense of strengthening what has weakened. The work restores firmness to what is already there, as one group takes its place in a larger shared effort.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāzaq: To be strong or grow firm.

חָזַק

The repair word belongs to this same root family: restoring the wall means giving it strength.

ḥizqû: Strengthen! Be strong!

חִזְקוּ

This same root appears in Isaiah’s call to strengthen weak hands, revealing the shared sense of reinforcing what has grown weak.

THE PATTERN

A shared work becomes whole as each part supplies strength to what is weak.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Isaiah 35:3 · KJVThe same root links strengthening the weak with the repair work described here.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJVThe verse presents building as shared labor, with each worker contributing to a common structure.

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:16 · KJVThe whole is built up through what each part supplies, echoing the priests’ place in a collective repair.

THE THREAD

And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.

Nehemiah 3:4 · KJV

The same root ⁨חזק⁩ underlies the word “repaired” in both verses: repair supplies strength. Read together, the priests are one link in a line where each group takes up the work beside another.

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