What Does Nehemiah 3:21 Mean?
After him Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Koz, strengthened another measured length, from the door of the house of Eliashib to the edge of the house of Eliashib.
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
After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.THE KEY
The house bearing the name Eliashib, “my God restores,” is repaired by a verb that also means “strengthen”: restoration takes shape one span at a time.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you in the scale of one piece: a defined span, from a doorway to the end of a house, is repaired. Wholeness takes shape as strength returns within that bounded place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only a sweeping, complete fix counts as restoration dissolves here: one bounded section is genuinely repaired.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיק
heḥĕzîq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong; strengthen or make firm.
“strengthened” in this verse is heḥĕzîq. The Hebrew verb translated repaired comes from the same root as “be strong.” Repair here carries the sense of strengthening a section so it can hold again.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, grow firm.
חָזַק
This is the root’s basic sense, showing that repair restores a section’s strength.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen, fortify.
חִזֵּק
This related form makes the strengthening carried by the repair verb explicit.
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
Open; make an opening.
“door” in this verse is petaḥ. The repair is measured from an opening to the far edge of the house. The Hebrew keeps the threshold visible as the starting point of this bounded work.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: Open, loosen.
פָּתַח
The verb shares the root of the doorway, linking the place of entry with the act of opening.
petaḥ: Opening, doorway.
פֶּתַח
This noun names the opening from which the repaired span is measured.
אֱלִיָשִׁיב
Eliashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn back, return; in a causative form, bring back or restore.
Eliashib means “my God restores.” The house named by restoration is the very place whose span Meremoth strengthens, making the name echo the work described.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back, return.
שׁוּב
This is the seed behind the restoration carried in the name Eliashib.
teshuvah: Return, turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The noun shows the root’s movement of return, a shade held in the name’s sense of restoration.
hēshîv: Bring back, restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form closely matches the meaning expressed by Eliashib’s name.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is rebuilt through concrete portions, each strengthened until it joins the larger whole.
Then Eliashib the great priest rose with his brethren the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They set it apart and raised its doors. Up to the tower of Meah they set it apart, up to the tower of Hananeel.So we built the wall, and all the wall was tied together to half of it, for the people had heart to work.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
Yet now take hold, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD, and hold, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the great priest, and take hold, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts.The Hebrew verb translated repaired here comes from the same root translated “be strong” in Haggai. The shared root makes restoration tangible: strength is the work of taking hold of a span and making it firm again.
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