What Does Nehemiah 6:19 Mean in the King James?
Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
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 letters are sent with fear as their intended payload, making intimidation a deliberate use of communication.
THE MEANING
Words move through your relationships: praise of someone can reach you while your own words are carried back to them. Then a message can be sent with the specific aim of making fear take hold; the pressure is real, and its intention is stated plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A threat can make fear feel like proof that it has already won; this verse names fear as the effect the sender is trying to produce.
THE ROOT
לְיַרְאֵנִי
leyare'eni
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, dread, revere, or stand in awe.
“put me in fear” in this verse is leyare'eni. The verb here is causative: Tobiah’s letters are meant to make Nehemiah fear, so the verse presents fear as an effect someone is trying to produce, not merely a feeling that arises on its own. The same root can name dread before a threat and awe before God; the object determines whether this is coercion or reverence.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear, awe, reverence.
יִרְאָה
This branch shows the root can name both fear and awe; here the stated aim is intimidation.
mora: Dread, terror.
מוֹרָא
This branch makes clear how fear can take hold before a threat, as the letters are meant to do.
THE PATTERN
Threatening words can govern speech and action before force is used.
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,THE THREAD
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.“Greatly afraid” uses the same ירא root as “to put me in fear.” In both verses, words carry a threat and produce fear in the hearer.
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