What Does Nehemiah 6:15 Mean in the King James?

So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

Nehemiah 6:15 · 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.

THE KEY

The wall is not merely done: “finished” shares its Hebrew root with shalom, so completion carries the sense of wholeness.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks now of repair becoming visible: a breach can close, and a boundary can stand again. The root behind “finished” also carries wholeness, so completion is more than reaching an endpoint; what was vulnerable is held together. The count, fifty-two days, makes that completion concrete.

THE ROOT

וַתִּשְׁלַם

wattišlam

GROWS FROM

שלם

sh-l-m

To be whole, complete, or sound.

The verb ⁨וַתִּשְׁלַם⁩ (wattišlam, “was completed”) shares the root ⁨שלם⁩ (sh-l-m) with ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, “wholeness, peace”). The verse’s completion therefore carries a sense of things made whole, a connection English “finished” alone does not show.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, peace.

שָׁלוֹם

This familiar branch reveals that completion and wholeness grow from the same root.

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes explicit the state implied by the wall being finished: completeness.

shillem: Repaid, made good.

שִׁלֵּם

This branch carries the root’s sense of bringing something to completion by making good what is owed.

THE PATTERN

Wholeness takes visible form when breaches are closed and what has fallen is rebuilt into a place that can stand.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Isaiah 58:12 · KJVRepair closes a breach and restores a place where people can dwell.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

Amos 9:11 · KJVWhat has fallen is raised, its breaches closed, and its ruins rebuilt.

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Ephesians 2:21 · KJVSeparate parts are joined into a structure that grows into a complete dwelling.

THE THREAD

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

Psalm 122:7 · KJV

The Hebrew word ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, “wholeness, peace”) shares the root ⁨שלם⁩ (sh-l-m) with Nehemiah’s “was finished.” Here, peace is placed within the walls: a completed boundary can hold wholeness.

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