What Does Nehemiah 3:25 Mean?
Palal son of Uzai, facing the bend of the wall, and the tower that juts out from the upper room of the house of the king, which was beside the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah son of Parosh.
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
Palal the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king’s high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “tower” grows from גדל, “to grow or become great,” placing a rising structure beside the king’s upper house and the prison court.
THE MEANING
Here, the wall repair runs past the tower projecting from the king’s upper house beside the prison court. Palal’s work is followed by Pedaiah’s, and the rebuilding continues through adjoining places and hands.
THE ROOT
מִגְדָּל
migdal
GROWS FROM
גדל
grow, become great
The word for tower comes from גדל, the verb for growing or becoming great; height is carried in the word itself. The same root forms “grow” and “great,” so this rising structure stands within the king’s complex beside the prison court.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: to grow, become great
גָּדַל
This verb shares the root’s consonants and reveals the growth carried within the word for tower.
gadol: great, large
גָּדוֹל
This adjective shares the root’s consonants and joins the tower’s height to the Hebrew language of greatness.
THE PATTERN
Restoration advances through connected sections entrusted to different hands.
After him Benjamin and Hashub strengthened, facing their house. After him Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, strengthened, by his house.Those who come from you shall build the dry ruins of the ages. You shall raise up the foundations of generation to generation, and you shall be called the mender of the breach, the one who turns the paths back to dwell in.For we are fellow workers with God. You are God's field; you are God's building.THE THREAD
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its head in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered across the face of the whole earth.Genesis uses the same Hebrew word, מִגְדָּל (migdal), for the tower. There, the builders say they want to make a name; here, the tower is part of the wall beside the king’s upper house and the prison court.
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