What Does Zechariah 2:4 Mean in the King James?
And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
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 city’s lack of walls is the visible shape of a life too abundant for tight boundaries.
THE MEANING
You stand inside a picture of belonging that spreads beyond enclosure: Jerusalem is filled with people and animals while remaining open. Wholeness has room to gather more life, and its abundance is visible in the city’s spacious form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a community can only flourish inside boundaries sized to its present numbers.
THE ROOT
פְּרָזוֹת
perazot
GROWS FROM
פרז
open, unwalled settlement
“without walls” in this verse is perazot. The Hebrew image gives Jerusalem the form of open, unwalled settlements. The verse ties that spacious shape directly to the abundance of life within the city.
ALSO GROWS
perizzi: villager or rural dweller
פְּרָזִי
This related form carries the sense of life dwelling outside a fortified city.
perazon: open country or unwalled villages
פְּרָזוֹן
It echoes the open settlement form used to picture Jerusalem here.
מֵרֹב
me-rov
GROWS FROM
רבה
to increase, multiply, become many
“multitude” in this verse is me-rov. The crowd is named as rov, abundance from ravah, to increase. The verse links the city’s open form to life that has multiplied within it.
ALSO GROWS
rov: abundance or multitude
רֹב
This is the word describing the human and animal life filling the city.
rav: many or great
רַב
This related form carries the same sense of scale and number.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
wholeness, completeness
Jerusalem’s name carries shalom, wholeness. Here that wholeness takes a spacious form: the city holds people and animals with room beyond the wall line.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
It names the nature carried in Jerusalem’s name.
shalem: whole or complete
שָׁלֵם
It shows the same root as a state of completeness.
THE PATTERN
As life multiplies, the space and form that hold it expand.
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.THE THREAD
For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.The open city is immediately paired with a wall of fire around it and the LORD’s weight in its midst. Spaciousness and protection stand together: abundance exceeds stone boundaries while remaining surrounded by divine presence.
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