What Does Nehemiah 13:25 Mean?
And I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck some of them, and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.THE KEY
The boundary is not separated from its force: the verse moves from cursing to blows and hair-pulling, then seals the demand with an oath by God.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a boundary and its enforcement in the same frame: the demand comes after cursing, striking, and hair-plucking. The oath invokes God, yet that invocation sits beside bodily force rather than erasing it. The daughters and sons are named through the verbs of giving and taking, so the rule reaches into households and marriage.
THE ROOT
וָאֲקַלְלֵם
va’aqallelem
GROWS FROM
קלל
qalal
To be slight or make light of; in this form, to curse.
English gives only the act “cursed,” while קלל (qalal) also carries the sense of treating someone as slight. The sequence begins with diminishing speech, then moves into bodily violence.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light, slight.
קַל
This related word preserves the root’s sense of making something seem slight.
qelalah: Curse, an imprecation.
קְלָלָה
The noun for a curse keeps the root’s degrading force in view.
תִּתְּנוּ
tittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
nathan
To give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is tittenu. The daughters are the ones a household “gives” to sons; the root also carries the sense of setting or placing. The wording presents marriage as movement between households, and the paired verb “take” echoes that movement.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This branch makes the root’s language of giving concrete in the verse’s wording.
nātûn: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
This form keeps the root’s sense of placing alongside the act of giving.
תִּשְׂאוּ
tise’u
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear; used here in the expression “take a wife.”
The English “take” conceals a root whose basic range is lifting and carrying. Alongside “give,” it makes the marriage rule speak in the language of one household giving and another taking a person into a family bond.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This branch shows the root’s sense of carrying.
nasi: Prince or leader; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
This branch preserves the root’s sense of being lifted or raised.
THE PATTERN
An oath gives a spoken boundary or promise force beyond the moment and binds a community to it.
And Joshua made wholeness with them, and cut a covenant with them, to let them live; and the lifted ones of the assembly swore to them.Then Ezra rose and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do according to this word. And they swore.For humankind swears by the greater, and an oath for steadying is for them the boundary of every word set against.THE THREAD
And I will bind you by the LORD, the God of the heavens, and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I settle.The phrase “take a wife” uses the same root, נשא (nasa), whose range includes lifting and carrying. This verse also binds a marriage boundary through an oath by God, opening the connection between Nehemiah’s “give” and “take” language and the household movement described in both passages.
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