What Does Nehemiah 6:16 Mean?
And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations about us saw these things, they fell greatly in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
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
And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.THE KEY
A completed work can make its source so visible that even its opponents recognize who did it.
THE MEANING
The work in front of you can carry its source in plain view: even those who resist it can recognize that God has done it. Their own estimate of themselves falls when that recognition arrives. The completed work bears witness without a separate argument.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that opposition must first be persuaded dissolves here: the work itself can make its source recognizable.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּדְעוּ
wayyēdeʿū
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with.
“perceived” in this verse is wayyēdeʿū. The verb carries the sense of knowing through recognition, not merely hearing a claim. The work becomes something even the adversaries encounter for themselves, and its source becomes known.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This branch shows knowing as something that takes shape into understanding; here, the visible work makes its source understandable.
nodaʿ: Known, made known
נוֹדַע
The same root includes what becomes known: the completed work makes God’s part in it evident to those watching.
נֶעֶשְׂתָה
neʿeśtāh
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-s-h
To do, make, or bring about.
“done” in this verse is neʿeśtāh. The word translated “wrought” belongs to the family of doing and making, which also names deeds and actions. The work is not an abstract claim; it is the visible result of an act, and that result lets its source be recognized.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăśeh: Deed, work, what is done
מַעֲשֶׂה
This branch links the act of making to the work that observers see completed.
ʿăśiyyāh: Action, doing
עֲשִׂיָּה
The work is the outcome of doing; its visible completion gives others something concrete to recognize.
THE PATTERN
A work made visible can reveal its source so clearly that outsiders recognize it.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.But if I do them, even if you do not trust me, lean your weight on the works, so that you may come to perceive, and keep on perceiving, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.Saying, "What shall we do to these men? For indeed a known sign has come to be through them, and it is visible to all who settle in Jerusalem, and we cannot say no to it.THE THREAD
Perceive that the LORD is God; it is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.The Hebrew repeats the two roots at work here: yada for knowing and asah for making. This verse joins knowing the LORD with recognizing the one who made us, opening the scene in Nehemiah further: the work itself leads observers to know its maker.
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