What Does Nehemiah 3:28 Mean in the King James?
From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house.
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
Here, repair is the strengthening of a shared boundary, carried out right across from the homes it protects.
THE MEANING
Restoration reaches the stretch of wall facing each home; the boundary nearest where you dwell belongs to the shared work of making the whole city firm. The work is spread across many portions, each strengthened in place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that repair is separate from ordinary home life dissolves here: the wall opposite each dwelling is part of what makes the whole city hold.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיקוּ
heḥĕzîqû
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
To be strong, strengthen, make firm, or prevail.
“repaired” in this verse is heḥĕzîqû. English repair can suggest patching or replacement; this verb carries the force of strengthening and making firm. The priests secure the city’s boundary in portions, each directly across from a home.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong; prevail.
חָזַק
The root’s basic sense is firmness: the wall is repaired by being made strong enough to stand.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen; make firm.
חִזֵּק
This form appears in Deuteronomy 3:28 for strengthening Joshua, linking the wall’s reinforcement with the strengthening of a person.
THE PATTERN
A shared whole is restored as each portion is made firm through the contribution of its part.
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.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.THE THREAD
But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.The word rendered “repaired” comes from חזק (ḥ-z-q), the root of making firm; the same root appears in “strengthen him” here. One passage makes a wall firm, the other steadies a person who must carry the people forward.
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