What Does Zechariah 8:5 Mean in the King James?
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
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 streets are רחובות (rehovot), broad places; its wholeness is visible when children can fill that open space with play.
THE MEANING
The city is full of children playing openly in its streets. Joy occupies shared space, making the city’s life visible in ordinary, unguarded delight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wholeness is more than surviving danger; it includes having room for delight to move freely in public.
THE ROOT
רְחֹבוֹת
rehovot
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or spacious; to make room.
The word for streets grows from the root for widening: these are open places within the city. Children filling them with play makes spaciousness visible as lived freedom.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Broad, wide
רָחָב
It makes the openness inside the word for streets audible.
merchav: A broad or open place
מֶרְחָב
It names the spaciousness that the children now occupy.
rechov: Street, square, or open place
רְחֹב
It is the singular form from which the verse’s רְחֹבוֹת (rehovot), streets, is formed.
מְשַׂחֲקִים
mesachaqim
GROWS FROM
שחק
To play or laugh; in some contexts, to make sport.
“playing” in this verse is mesachaqim. The root holds play and laughter together, so the children’s movement carries delight as well as activity. The same root describes a creature at play in the waters, placing their street-play within a wider image of creation at ease.
ALSO GROWS
sechoq: Laughter
שְׂחוֹק
It reveals the delight carried within the act of playing.
mischaq: Play or game
מִשְׂחָק
It shows the same root naming play as an activity or game.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness becomes visible when life can move freely through shared spaces.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.THE THREAD
There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.The word translated “play” here comes from שחק (ś-ḥ-q), meaning to play or laugh, the same root as the children playing in Zechariah. In the psalm, Leviathan plays in the waters, widening the scene from children at ease in the city to life at ease in creation.
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