What Does Nehemiah 5:15 Mean in the King James?
But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.
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 governors make the people carry their weight, while awe of God appears as refusing to add that weight.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now wherever people under authority are made to supply their leaders’ food, money, and obedience. The burden is not inevitable: awe of God changes what power permits itself to take. Reverence becomes visible as restraint toward people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a leader’s power makes taking from people inevitable or self-justifying.
THE ROOT
הִכְבִּידוּ
hikbidu
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; to make heavy.
“chargeable” in this verse is hikbidu. The Hebrew carries the image of making the people heavy-laden: the governors add weight to those they govern. The same root gives kavod, “weight,” so imposed burden and the weight associated with leadership echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
It supplies the physical image beneath “chargeable”: the governors make the people bear added weight.
kavod: Weight; honor
כָּבוֹד
The same root makes the burden imposed by rulers resonate with the weight entrusted to leadership.
יִרְאַת אֱלֹהִים
yir'at Elohim
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear or stand in awe.
“fear of God” in this verse is yir'at Elohim. The phrase names awe directed toward God; here, awe takes a concrete form as a person with power refuses to repeat the extraction others treat as normal. The root reveals reverence as a limit on what power takes.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear, revere, or stand in awe
יָרֵא
This verb names the posture behind “fear of God,” which shapes the speaker’s restraint.
nora: Awe-inspiring, fearsome
נוֹרָא
This related form shows the root’s range from fearing to recognizing what inspires awe.
THE PATTERN
A leader’s awe is visible in whether authority extracts from the people beneath it.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.THE THREAD
Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.The Hebrew word translated “laid upon” comes from כבד (k-b-d), the same root behind “chargeable” in Nehemiah. Exodus 5:9 names a ruler’s command to make the work heavier; Nehemiah 5:15 describes governors making the people bear weight. The shared root lets the reader hear the same mechanism: power increasing the load.
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