What Does Nehemiah 13:6 Mean?
But in all this I was not at Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I came in to the king, and at the end of certain days I asked the king for leave.
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
But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king:THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “leave” carries the act of asking: even the way back to wholeness can depend on a request to another authority.
THE MEANING
You can be away from a place that still matters to you; the time away is not an empty detail. Even a return can depend on another authority, and on waiting before permission arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that wanting to return makes the timing yours to command; leave comes through an appeal to the king.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁאַלְתִּי
nish'alti
GROWS FROM
שאל
sha'al
ask, inquire, request
“asked the king for leave” in this verse is nish'alti. English presents “leave” as permission already in hand; the Hebrew verb carries the act of asking within it. The verse holds the waiting and the dependence together: return opens by request, not by sheer movement.
ALSO GROWS
she'elah: request, petition
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun makes explicit the asking contained in the verb behind “obtained I leave.”
sha'ul: asked for, requested
שָׁאוּל
The name Sha’ul comes from the same root, showing how asking can name what is sought and received.
THE PATTERN
When an entrusted person is absent, decisions in their sphere fall to those who remain.
When the people saw that Moses lingered to come down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, Rise, make us gods who will go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we have not known what has come to him.And I came to Jerusalem, and perceived the evil that Eliashib made for Tobiah, in making him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.For I know this, that after my leaving, heavy wolves will come in among you, not holding back from the flock.THE THREAD
When the days had come around, Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, the asked-for one, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.The Hebrew verb behind “obtained I leave” shares its root with Hannah’s “asked.” In both verses, what follows depends on a request made to someone with authority to grant it.
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