What Does Nehemiah 9:3 Mean in the King James?
And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their 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
The Hebrew root beneath “confessed” also gives “thanksgiving,” so confession here can be acknowledgment that opens into praise.
THE MEANING
As you receive divine instruction, attention becomes acknowledgment: what is heard can be spoken openly, and the body can answer with reverence. Reading, confession, and bowing belong to one encounter with God rather than separate compartments.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reading Scripture is complete as private understanding; here, reading is joined with communal confession and bodily reverence.
THE ROOT
וּמִתְוַדִּים
u-mitvaddim
GROWS FROM
ידה
Acknowledge, confess; also give thanks or praise.
The Hebrew verb translated “confessed” comes from יָדָה (yādāh), a root that can also express giving thanks and praise. The same root lets confession carry more than naming fault: it can be acknowledgment voiced alongside reverence.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving, praise
תּוֹדָה
This noun belongs to the same root family, linking confession with gratitude and praise.
Yehudah: Judah, a name associated with praise
יְהוּדָה
In Genesis 29:35, Leah links Judah’s name with her declaration of praise, echoing the same movement from acknowledgment to praise.
וַיִּקְרְאוּ
vayyikre'u
GROWS FROM
קרא
Call, summon, proclaim; by extension, read aloud.
The verb translated “read” shares its root with calling and proclaiming. The word carries the sense of voiced reading in a gathering, as the people attend to the text together.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: A reading or convocation
מִקְרָא
Built from the same root, it links reading with a gathered assembly.
qaru: Called, summoned
קָרוּא
This form makes the root’s calling sense visible within the act of reading aloud to the people.
THE PATTERN
Receiving divine instruction moves into expressed response: praise, obedience, or keeping what is heard.
Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.THE THREAD
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.Nehemiah’s “confessed” comes from יָדָה (yādāh, acknowledge or confess), the same root family as תּוֹדָה (todah, thanksgiving) in this psalm. That shared root lets confession hold acknowledgment and gratitude together.
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