What Does Ezekiel 10:22 Mean?
And the likeness of their faces was the same faces that I saw by the river of Chebar, their sight and themselves; each one walked straight ahead.
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 the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward.THE KEY
The face is the direction: each being goes toward the orientation it already bears.
THE MEANING
The faces are the same as those seen by the river Chebar, and each being moves toward the direction of its own face. What appears and where it goes belong together; the vision’s identity is visible in its movement.
THE ROOT
פָּנִים
pānîm
GROWS FROM
פנה
Turn toward; face.
“faces / forward” in this verse is pānîm. The Hebrew says each one goes toward the direction of its face. The word for face carries orientation too, so the beings’ movement follows what their faces already turn toward.
ALSO GROWS
panah: Turn; face toward.
פָּנָה
This root meaning makes the face an orientation, not only a visible feature.
lifnei: Before; in front of.
לִפְנֵי
This related form places something in the direction of a face, echoing how each being moves toward the direction it faces.
THE PATTERN
A face is not only what is seen; it marks the direction a being takes.
Each walked straight forward. Wherever the breath was to go, there they walked. They did not turn in their walking.And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.And it came to pass, when the days of his being taken up were filling full, he firmly set his face to go to Jerusalem.THE THREAD
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.The Hebrew word rendered “presence” is panim, the same word for “faces” in Ezekiel 10:22. Here, the face goes with you; in Ezekiel, each being goes toward the direction its face bears.
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