What Does Nehemiah 3:6 Mean in the King James?
Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
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 sense of strengthening: this old threshold is made firm enough to hold again.
THE MEANING
An old threshold can still be made sound in every working part: its frame holds, its doors open, and its locks and bars secure it. Restoration reaches both sides of the threshold, free passage and firm protection, at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that age makes something beyond repair dissolves here: what is old can be strengthened until it works again.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיקוּ
heḥĕzîqû
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong or firm; strengthen, hold fast.
“repaired” in this verse is heḥĕzîqû. The Hebrew verb comes from חזק (chazaq), a root of becoming strong and making firm. Its family also carries the sense of holding fast, so the work on the gate’s beams, doors, locks, and bars makes its boundary secure as well as functional.
ALSO GROWS
strengthen: Make firm or strong.
חַזְּקוּ
Isaiah 35:3 uses this form of the same root; it shows the strengthening held inside Nehemiah’s word for repair.
took hold: They grasped or held firmly.
וַיַּחֲזִקוּ
The same root can describe holding fast, echoing how the repaired gate’s locks and bars secure its threshold.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling becomes whole as its parts are gathered and set into a sound structure.
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.The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.Isaiah uses the same חזק (chazaq) root rendered “strengthen” where Nehemiah has “repaired.” The gate’s repair and weak hands share one verb-family: restoration is firmness returning where support has weakened.
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