What Does Nehemiah 6:16 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our 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
A completed work can make its source so visible that even its opponents recognize who did it.
THE MEANING
The work in front of you can carry its source in plain view: even those who resist it can recognize that God has done it. Their own estimate of themselves falls when that recognition arrives. The completed work bears witness without a separate argument.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that opposition must first be persuaded dissolves here: the work itself can make its source recognizable.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּדְעוּ
wayyēdeʿū
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with.
“perceived” in this verse is wayyēdeʿū. The verb carries the sense of knowing through recognition, not merely hearing a claim. The work becomes something even the adversaries encounter for themselves, and its source becomes known.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This branch shows knowing as something that takes shape into understanding; here, the visible work makes its source understandable.
nodaʿ: Known, made known
נוֹדַע
The same root includes what becomes known: the completed work makes God’s part in it evident to those watching.
נֶעֶשְׂתָה
neʿeśtāh
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-s-h
To do, make, or bring about.
The word translated “wrought” belongs to the family of doing and making, which also names deeds and actions. The work is not an abstract claim; it is the visible result of an act, and that result lets its source be recognized.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăśeh: Deed, work, what is done
מַעֲשֶׂה
This branch links the act of making to the work that observers see completed.
ʿăśiyyāh: Action, doing
עֲשִׂיָּה
The work is the outcome of doing; its visible completion gives others something concrete to recognize.
THE PATTERN
A work made visible can reveal its source so clearly that outsiders recognize it.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we can not deny it.THE THREAD
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.The Hebrew repeats the two roots at work here: yada for knowing and asah for making. This verse joins knowing the LORD with recognizing the one who made us, opening the scene in Nehemiah further: the work itself leads observers to know its maker.
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