What Does Nehemiah 5:11 Mean in the King James?
Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.
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
Restoration turns extraction around until the land, livelihood, homes, and even the smallest withheld portion return to the people who lost them.
THE MEANING
This verse makes repair visible in the things that support a life: fields, vineyards, olive trees, homes, and the portion exacted from money and produce. Its insistence on “even this day” places the return in the present, down to what seems like a small fraction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that taking only a small share, or taking it under a claim, leaves the other person whole. Here, even the hundredth part remains part of what must be returned.
THE ROOT
הָשִׁיבוּ
hashivu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back; return.
The command translated “restore” comes from shuv, to turn or return: these are not new gifts but what must be turned back to the people who lost them. The verse measures repair by reversing the direction of extraction, down to the portion taken from money and produce.
ALSO GROWS
heshiv: Bring back; return.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form of shuv echoes the verse’s command: make what was taken come back to its people.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes restoration a change of direction, illuminating the verse’s movement from taking toward return.
THE PATTERN
Repair takes material form when what was taken is returned, sometimes with more than the original amount.
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The Hebrew word translated “restoreth” here, מְשׁוֹבֵב (meshovev), also comes from שׁוּב (shuv), “turn back; return.” In Nehemiah, what returns is land and livelihood; here, it is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), the living soul.
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