What Does Nehemiah 3:6 Mean?
And the old gate Jehoiada son of Paseah strengthened, and Meshullam son of Besodeiah. They roofed it, and set in place its doors, its locks, and its bars.
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
Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.THE KEY
The word translated “repaired” carries the sense of strengthening: this old threshold is made firm enough to hold again.
THE MEANING
An old threshold can still be made sound in every working part: its frame holds, its doors open, and its locks and bars secure it. Restoration reaches both sides of the threshold, free passage and firm protection, at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that age makes something beyond repair dissolves here: what is old can be strengthened until it works again.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיקוּ
heḥĕzîqû
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong or firm; strengthen, hold fast.
“strengthened” in this verse is heḥĕzîqû. The Hebrew verb comes from חזק (chazaq), a root of becoming strong and making firm. Its family also carries the sense of holding fast, so the work on the gate’s beams, doors, locks, and bars makes its boundary secure as well as functional.
ALSO GROWS
strengthen: Make firm or strong.
חַזְּקוּ
Isaiah 35:3 uses this form of the same root; it shows the strengthening held inside Nehemiah’s word for repair.
took hold: They grasped or held firmly.
וַיַּחֲזִקוּ
The same root can describe holding fast, echoing how the repaired gate’s locks and bars secure its threshold.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling becomes whole as its parts are gathered and set into a sound structure.
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.The LORD builds Jerusalem; he gathers the driven-out of Israel.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Strengthen the hands that have let go, and steady the knees that buckle.Isaiah uses the same חזק (chazaq) root rendered “strengthen” where Nehemiah has “repaired.” The gate’s repair and weak hands share one verb-family: restoration is firmness returning where support has weakened.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us