What Does Nehemiah 4:10 Mean in the King James?
And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
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
Hebrew packs “bearers of burdens” into a single word for load-carriers: when their strength stumbles, the wall cannot rise.
THE MEANING
Your strength can give way under what you carry while rubble fills the place where rebuilding needs to happen. The verse names both conditions plainly: the carriers are depleted, and the work is impossible under the weight as it stands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that being unable to keep building proves laziness or weak commitment; here, strength has stumbled and rubble is abundant.
THE ROOT
הַסַּבָּל
hassabbal
GROWS FROM
סבל
To bear or carry a load.
The Hebrew uses one word for “the burden-carrier,” which the KJV opens into “bearers of burdens.” The same root forms the word for a burden itself, binding the carriers and what they carry into one picture: when their carrying strength falters, building stops.
ALSO GROWS
sabbal: Burden-carrier, porter.
סַבָּל
This is the word used for the workers whose strength has given way.
sevel: Burden, load.
סֵבֶל
It shows the load is already contained in the name of the person carrying it.
sabal: To bear or carry a load.
סָבַל
The verb reveals the action beneath both the carrier and the burden.
כָּשַׁל
kashal
GROWS FROM
כשל
To stumble, totter, or fail.
“decayed” in this verse is kashal. The Hebrew gives the loss of strength the shape of a stumble or a loss of footing. The builders’ inability is not abstract: the people carrying the load can no longer stay steady beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
kashal: To stumble, totter, or fail.
כָּשַׁל
This is the verb describing what has happened to the bearers’ strength.
mikhshol: Stumbling block, obstacle.
מִכְשׁוֹל
It links the bearers’ stumble with the debris obstructing the work.
kishalon: Stumbling, downfall, failure.
כִּשָּׁלוֹן
This branch makes visible how lost footing can become a larger collapse.
יְהוּדָה
Yehudah
GROWS FROM
ידה
To acknowledge, give thanks, or praise.
“Judah” in this verse is Yehudah. Yehudah carries a name connected with acknowledgment and praise. Here the report acknowledges the limit plainly: strength has failed, rubble is abundant, and the wall cannot be built.
ALSO GROWS
Yehudah: Judah; a name associated with acknowledgment and praise.
יְהוּדָה
The speaker’s name carries the language of acknowledgment as the verse names the real conditions.
todah: Thanks, thanksgiving.
תּוֹדָה
This familiar branch shares the root’s language of acknowledgment.
hodah: To give thanks or acknowledge.
הוֹדָה
It makes explicit the act of naming what is true.
THE PATTERN
When a load exceeds one person’s carrying strength, the task requires support beyond that one person.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.The Hebrew word for burden-carrier in Nehemiah comes from סבל, the same root used when Isaiah says, “I will bear.” The language that names human exhaustion here also opens onto a bearer who carries through.
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