What Does Nehemiah 4:19 Mean in the King James?
And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.
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 Hebrew lets “large” and “far” echo in sound: the work’s breadth and the workers’ distance belong to the same scene.
THE MEANING
The work is great and broad, while the people carrying it are spread along the wall, each far from his brother. A shared undertaking can span a distance that makes closeness impossible; the verse holds the scale of the work and the workers’ separation together.
THE ROOT
רְחָבָה
reḥavah
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To be wide, broad, or spacious.
“large” in this verse is reḥavah. רְחָבָה (reḥavah, “wide”) and רְחוֹקִים (reḥoqim, “far”) share the opening sound-shape ר־ח (r-ḥ), while their final consonants distinguish רחב (r-ḥ-b) and רחק (r-ḥ-q). The echo lets the verse hold the breadth of the work beside the workers’ distance without collapsing the two into one meaning.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: Open space; a broad place.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes breadth feel like room, not only size: the work stretches across a space where people stand apart.
Reḥovot: Broad places; the place-name Rehoboth.
רְחֹבוֹת
In Genesis 26:22 the same root appears in “the LORD hath made room for us,” linking breadth with room opened for life to continue.
נִפְרָדִים
nifradim
GROWS FROM
פרד
p-r-d
To divide, separate, or part.
The form describes people separated across the wall, while the sentence still names their labor as one great work. The root reveals a spatial division within a shared undertaking, rather than making separation the whole story.
ALSO GROWS
hiphrid: To separate or divide something.
הִפְרִיד
This active form names the act of making a division; here the workers occupy distinct places along the wall.
nifrad: To be separated or part from another.
נִפְרַד
This form presents separation as a condition the workers inhabit, not as proof that the work itself has become unrelated.
רְחוֹקִים
reḥoqim
GROWS FROM
רחק
r-ḥ-q
To be far away or distant.
The phrase “one far from another” becomes personal in the next words: “every man from his brother.” Distance here is measured between people, giving the work’s wide reach a human dimension.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: Far; distant.
רָחוֹק
The singular form carries the same distance that the verse distributes among the workers.
merḥaq: Distance; a distant place.
מֶרְחָק
This noun turns the adjective’s separation into a span of space, matching the wall that places each worker far from his brother.
THE PATTERN
A shared work can span many positions, with each part contributing from its own place.
And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.THE THREAD
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.The word רְחָבָה (reḥavah, “wide”) comes from רחב (r-ḥ-b), the same root in רְחֹבוֹת (Reḥovot), “broad places.” In Nehemiah the root describes the breadth of the work; in Genesis it names room made for people to continue.
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