What Does Zechariah 6:15 Mean?
And those who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and you shall perceive that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will surely hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your 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 they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.THE KEY
The distant ones do not merely reach God’s house; they become builders within it.
THE MEANING
Those who are far away come into the LORD’s temple and build within it; distance does not leave them outside the work. You recognize the LORD’s sending in that gathering, and the promise comes to pass as you hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that those far away must remain outsiders or can only receive what others build for them: they come and build in the temple themselves.
THE ROOT
רְחוֹקִים
rechoqim
GROWS FROM
רחק
To be far or distant.
English can make “far off” sound like a final condition, but the Hebrew names a distance that the sentence immediately puts into motion: these people come and build. Remoteness does not define their final relation to the temple.
ALSO GROWS
rachoq: Far or distant.
רָחוֹק
The singular form carries the same sense of distance named for these people.
merchaq: Distance or remoteness.
מֶרְחָק
This noun makes the space between near and far explicit, while the verse shows that space being crossed.
hirchiq: To put or move something far away.
הִרְחִיק
The root can describe distance as something that changes, not an identity that must last.
וּבָנוּ
u-vanu
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or establish.
The ones who come from far away do not only enter a finished sacred space; they build within it. Their arrival becomes participation in the temple’s life.
ALSO GROWS
mivneh: A structure or building.
מִבְנֶה
The same root moves from the act of building to the structure that takes shape.
binyan: A building or construction.
בִּנְיָן
This branch keeps the focus on a structure being formed, as the distant ones take part in the temple’s building.
שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּן
shamoa tishme'un
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen, with the sense of hearing and responding.
“surely hear and respond” in this verse is shamoa tishme'un. The Hebrew repeats the root in the condition, “if hearing, you hear.” The familiar force of “diligently obey” also carries this image of responsive listening: the promise is bound to hearing the LORD’s voice as more than sound.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the root’s basic action, repeated in the verse to emphasize the response to God’s voice.
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard, connecting the voice in this verse with a message received.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling becomes a shared house as people from beyond its boundary are gathered in and built together.
Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.In whom you also are built together into a place where God settles, through breath.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
I create the fruit of the lips. Wholeness, wholeness to the one far off and to the one near, says the LORD, and I will heal him.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root, רחק (rachoq, to be far), for “him that is far off.” It declares wholeness to both distant and near, while Zechariah shows the distant ones moving into the temple and becoming builders.
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