What Does Nehemiah 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.
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 Hebrew repeats the same phrase for both the summons and the reply: what arrives as one matter is returned as that same matter.
THE MEANING
The repeated summons remains the same matter on its fourth arrival; its recurrence does not change what it asks. The reader meets an answer that holds its shape while attention is being pulled away from the work at hand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a demand becomes more legitimate each time it is repeated.
THE ROOT
כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה
ka-davar hazeh
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; word, matter, or thing.
“after this sort / after the same manner” in this verse is ka-davar hazeh. The phrase כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה (ka-davar hazeh, “according to this matter/word”) appears on both sides of the sentence: once for what they send and once for what Nehemiah returns. English uses two phrases, but the Hebrew holds the incoming message and the reply in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, speech, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun can name both what is spoken and the matter being discussed, joining the message to its substance.
dibber: Spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch keeps speech and matter connected: what is sent is also something spoken or communicated.
וָאָשִׁיב
va'ashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
sh-w-b
To turn back or return.
“Answered” comes from שׁוּב (shuv, “turn/return”) in a form that can mean “reply.” His answer is also a return: the same matter comes back instead of the repeated sending dictating a new direction.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back or return.
שׁוּב
The basic sense makes an answer sound like a return, fitting the verse’s repeated exchange.
heshiv: Answered or returned.
הֵשִׁיב
This verb form carries the reply sense used here, with the root’s sense of returning still underneath it.
וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ
wayyishlechu
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ch
To send, send forth, or release.
“sent” in this verse is wayyishlechu. שָׁלַח (shalach, “send, send forth, release”) names the repeated dispatches reaching him. The word’s range includes release, yet repetition alone does not carry him away from the work that holds his attention.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: Messenger; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The related noun names the carrier of a message, linking the act of sending to the one who bears it.
shilluach: Sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch keeps the release sense present in the root; here, repeated sending does not determine the direction of his reply.
THE PATTERN
Repetition increases the pressure of a summons without changing the answer’s underlying matter.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.THE THREAD
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?Verse 3 gives the answer that verse 4 says is repeated: the work continues, and he will not come down. The same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, “send/release”), appears in “I sent messengers” and “they sent unto me,” setting the two opposing directions side by side.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us