What Does Nehemiah 5:16 Mean?
Also I held fast to the work of this wall, and we did not buy a field. And all my servants were gathered there to the work.
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
Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work.THE KEY
“Continued” means “held fast”: the verse pictures shared labor as a grip maintained, not a task merely left underway.
THE MEANING
The work continues, land is not purchased, and the workers gather where the labor is happening. The verse gives steadfastness a concrete shape: sustained attention to shared work, carried by many hands.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזַקְתִּי
heḥezaqti
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be strong, become firm, or hold fast.
“held fast to the work of this wall” in this verse is heḥezaqti. The Hebrew verb behind “continued” carries the sense of holding firmly to the work. It makes perseverance more than duration: the work is something held onto, a commitment kept in hand.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: Be strong or become firm.
חָזַק
This branch shows the firmness contained in Nehemiah’s continuing commitment.
heḥeziq: Take hold of or hold firmly.
הֶחֱזִיק
This form makes the verse’s perseverance feel like an active grip on the shared work.
ḥizzeq: Make strong or strengthen.
חִזֵּק
The same root can describe strengthening what is already held to, linking perseverance with renewed firmness.
THE PATTERN
Shared work advances when commitment stays firm and many hands gather to it.
I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work stop, while I let my hands drop from it and come down to you?Two are better than one, because they have good wages for their toil.So then, my beloved brothers, be steady, unmoved, always overflowing in the work of the Lord, seeing that your toil is not empty in the Lord.THE THREAD
For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands will drop from the work, so that it is not done. Now therefore, O God, grip my hands.The same root rendered “continued” here appears as “strengthen” in this verse. The link turns steadfast commitment into an image of strengthened hands staying with the work.
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