What Does Nehemiah 4:5 Mean in the King James?

And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.

Nehemiah 4:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here, a plea for justice is a refusal to let wrongdoing become invisible.

THE MEANING

When harm reaches your work in the open, this verse names a refusal to have it hidden or erased from God’s sight. The crookedness remains before God; even the anger it provokes stays visible. The prayer lets the injury stand without softening it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Covering wrongdoing makes it disappear from God’s sight.

THE ROOT

תְּכַס

tekhas

GROWS FROM

כסה

kāsâ

To cover, conceal, or keep out of sight.

“cover” in this verse is tekhas. The prayer places covering and blotting out side by side: first the crookedness is not to be hidden, then the sin is not to be erased from God’s sight. The root’s image makes the plea about keeping the injury visible, not making it disappear.

ALSO GROWS

mekhasseh: One who covers; covering.

מְכַסֶּה

This active form carries the same root letters, ⁨כ־ס־ה⁩, and shows the covering as an action someone performs.

mikhseh: A covering or protective layer.

מִכְסֶה

This noun carries the same root letters and makes the image tangible: a covering can shield what lies beneath, the very concealment this prayer refuses.

THE PATTERN

Wrongdoing does not vanish from God’s sight simply because it is covered; Scripture shows it exposed, remembered, and answerable.

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Proverbs 28:13 · KJVIt contrasts covering one’s sins with bringing them into the open, showing that concealment is not the same as resolution.

For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

Luke 12:2 · KJVIt says that what is hidden will be revealed, echoing the plea that wrongdoing remain before God.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Psalm 109:14 · KJVIt joins remembrance with a refusal to blot out sin, repeating this verse’s demand that wrongdoing not disappear.

THE THREAD

A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Psalm 32:1 · KJV

Psalm 32 uses the same Hebrew root ⁨כסה⁩ (kāsâ, “cover”) for the sin that is “covered.” The root holds the act of covering in common, while the contexts differ: here the plea is that wrongdoing not be hidden; in the Psalm, covering appears beside forgiveness.

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