What Does Nehemiah 4:21 Mean in the King James?
So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.
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 work continues because building and guarding happen side by side, with watch kept from first light until the stars appear.
THE MEANING
What is being built can require making and protection at once: one group works while another holds the spears. The shared effort stretches from daybreak until the stars come out, making watchfulness part of what allows the work to continue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only the hands visibly building are contributing; guarding is part of what lets the structure rise.
THE ROOT
מַחֲזִיקִים
maḥăzîqîm
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥazaq (חזק) carries being strong, becoming firm, and strengthening; here it means holding fast.
“held” in this verse is maḥăzîqîm. The word for holding the spears belongs to the same root as being strong and strengthening. The watch is an active support for the work, not something separate from it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥizzēq: Strengthened or made strong.
חִזֵּק
The related sense of strengthening shows how holding the spears reinforces the people’s ability to keep working.
ḥāzāq: Strong or firm.
חָזָק
The root’s sense of firmness comes through in the steady hold that continues through the day.
עֹשִׂים
ʿōśîm
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿasah (עשה) means do or make; in this form it describes ongoing action.
The Hebrew word rendered “laboured” is phrased as doing or making. Its root also names what is made, letting the work read as a continuing act of bringing something into being.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāsāh: To do or make.
עָשָׂה
This basic form makes the ongoing building work an act of making, not merely exertion.
maʿăśeh: An act, deed, or work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun from the same root connects the action of making with the work that takes shape.
צֵאת
tset
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa (יצא) means go out, come forth, or emerge; צֵאת (tset) means coming out.
“appeared” in this verse is tset. The endpoint is described as the stars coming out. The watch lasts across the day until the night sky emerges, marking its duration by what comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
This basic form gives the stars’ appearance the sense of emergence.
hôṣîʾ: To bring or lead out.
הוֹצִיא
The causative branch extends the root’s movement outward, echoing the stars coming forth at the end of the watch.
THE PATTERN
Shared work is sustained by keeping the acts of building and watchfulness together.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.THE THREAD
They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.The paired roots recur: עשה (ʿasah, do or make) names the work, and חזק (ḥazaq, hold fast or strengthen) names holding the weapon. Here the roles are divided between groups; in the next verse, making and guarding meet in one worker’s two hands.
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