What Does Nehemiah 3:29 Mean in the King James?
After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east 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
The gatekeeper’s name means YHWH has heard and his father’s means YHWH has dwelt, placing listening and dwelling beside the act of keeping the threshold.
THE MEANING
Restoration reaches the opening, where access and protection meet. Your own mending is held by the attention that keeps watch over what has been reopened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that repair is finished as soon as the visible break is mended.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
Keep, guard, watch over, preserve.
“keeper” in this verse is shomer. Shomer comes from a root spanning keeping, guarding, watching, and preserving. The job title carries ongoing vigilance: the repaired gate is not simply fixed but entrusted to continuing care.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper; one who watches.
שֹׁמֵר
This is the word used for the gatekeeper’s role, so the title itself carries the act of continued watchfulness.
mishmeret: Watch, guard duty, charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The same root names the responsibility of keeping watch, making the role an ongoing practice.
שְׁמַעְיָה
Shemaʿyāh
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
Hear, listen.
“Shemaiah” in this verse is Shemaʿyāh. The name is commonly understood as YHWH has heard. Beside the gatekeeper’s role, it gives watchfulness a resonance of attentive listening, not merely standing at an opening.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen; heed when response is implied.
שָׁמַע
The root’s listening sense gives the keeper’s watch an attentiveness that reaches beyond simply guarding a post.
shemuʿah: Report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name what is heard as well as the act of hearing, carrying that listening sense into the name.
שְׁכַנְיָה
Shekhanyāh
GROWS FROM
שׁכן
Settle, dwell, reside.
“Shechaniah” in this verse is Shekhanyāh. The name carries the sense YHWH has dwelt. Beside a gatekeeper, it places the threshold at the boundary of a lived-in space: the opening is watched because a dwelling lies within.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: Settle, dwell, reside.
שָׁכַן
This root supplies the dwelling sense carried by Shechaniah’s name.
mishkan: Dwelling place; tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
This branch makes the name’s dwelling sense concrete as a place where presence resides.
THE PATTERN
What is restored or entrusted is sustained through ongoing keeping.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.The word translated preserve comes from the same root as keeper in Nehemiah. The gatekeeper’s watch opens into a wider image of every coming and going being kept.
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