What Does Nehemiah 6:8 Mean in the King James?
Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
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 calls this accusation an invention drawn from the speaker’s own heart, not an event that has happened.
THE MEANING
A false report can be named for what it is: a claim generated from the speaker’s own inner source rather than an event that occurred. The verse holds the distinction between what has come to pass and what someone invents within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Confidence does not make an allegation factual; a person can invent a report from within and present it as news.
THE ROOT
בֹודָאָם
bōdāʾām
GROWS FROM
בדא
badaʾ
To invent, devise, or fabricate.
The same rare verb appears in 1 Kings 12:33 for a feast devised from the heart. Here, too, the claim is portrayed as something made within and then presented outwardly, giving “feignest” the texture of active fabrication.
ALSO GROWS
bōdāʾām: You invent them; the form used in this verse.
בֹודָאָם
It makes the speaker the active source of the claim.
bādāʾ: He devised or invented; the same verb in 1 Kings 12:33.
בָּדָא
That verse also ties the invention to what comes from a person’s own heart.
מִלִּבְּךָ
millibbəkha
GROWS FROM
לבב
levav
Heart; the inner person and center of thought or intention.
“From your heart” names an inward source of intention, not simply an emotion. Paired with the verb for inventing, it presents the accusation as a story originating within the speaker and then sent outward.
ALSO GROWS
lēv: Heart; the inner person.
לֵב
It shows that “heart” can name the inward source from which a thought or intention comes.
lēvāv: Heart; the inward mind or thought.
לֵבָב
It reinforces the connection between the heart and an idea formed within.
THE PATTERN
A claim formed within someone can be presented as fact, while truth is measured against what is real.
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.THE THREAD
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.The rare Hebrew verb translated “feignest” here reappears as “devised” in this verse, and both passages connect the invention to someone’s own heart. The shared root reveals the same movement: an inward fabrication becomes an outward claim or act.
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