What Does Nehemiah 8:10 Mean in the King James?
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
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 feast becomes holy as abundance is released outward, while the LORD’s joy is the stronghold that carries the people beyond sorrow.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where grief and lack are real, holding celebration, shared food, and release from sorrow together. The LORD’s joy is called your strength with the word מָעוֹז (ma’oz), meaning refuge or stronghold: it holds you while need remains and provision moves toward those who have none prepared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sorrow or deprivation is what makes a day holy: the verse calls the day set apart while people eat richly and share with those who have nothing prepared.
THE ROOT
מָעוֹז
ma’oz
GROWS FROM
עוז
ʿ-w-z
Be strong; strength and refuge.
The word translated “strength” is מָעוֹז, which also means refuge or stronghold. The LORD’s joy is pictured as shelter and support, a place of steadiness, not a demand to manufacture cheer.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This branch carries the root’s direct sense of strength and makes the verse’s word more concrete.
ma’oz: Stronghold, refuge.
מָעוֹז
This is the verse’s own word, opening “strength” as a place of shelter that holds you.
וְשִׁלְחוּ
veshilchu
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send forth, release, let go.
“send” in this verse is veshilchu. The verb for sending portions comes from שָׁלַח (shalach), whose range includes sending out and releasing. The feast and the giving become one movement: what is received is let go toward someone who lacks it.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent; the name of a water channel or pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name carries the image of waters sent outward, echoing how the portions leave the feast and reach others.
shulchan: Table.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table is provision extended outward; here its portions reach people for whom nothing is prepared.
THE PATTERN
Joy before the LORD becomes tangible in shared meals and gifts.
And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.The verb behind “send portions” is וְשִׁלְחוּ (veshilchu), from שָׁלַח (shalach), the same root in “Let my people go.” Here release reaches the table: food leaves abundance and reaches those for whom none is prepared.
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