What Does Ezekiel 11:13 Mean?
And it came to be, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell upon my face and cried out with a loud voice, and I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Will you make the remnant of Israel run out?"
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, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?THE KEY
The man who dies bears a name meaning “YHWH has delivered,” so Ezekiel’s first response is to ask whether even what remains will be brought to an end.
THE MEANING
A sudden death makes the possibility of total erasure feel immediate, and the cry brings that fear straight before God. Even a name that carries deliverance does not silence the question of whether the remnant will survive.
THE ROOT
פְּלַטְיָהוּ
Pəlaṭyāhū
GROWS FROM
פלט
To escape or be delivered out of danger.
Pelatiah’s name carries the sense “YHWH has delivered.” His father Benaiah (בְּנָיָהוּ, Bənāyāhū, “YHWH has built”) bears another name of divine action; the two names sit beside a sudden death, while the verse leaves Ezekiel’s question unanswered.
ALSO GROWS
pālaṭ: To escape or slip away.
פָּלַט
The verb behind Pelatiah’s name brings the idea of escape into a verse where death makes survival uncertain.
pəlēṭāh: Escape or survivors.
פְּלֵיטָה
This noun connects the name’s root to the question of whether anyone remains beyond the threat of destruction.
שְׁאֵרִית
she’erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
To remain or be left over.
“Remnant” is not only a label for a group; the Hebrew word carries the sense of what is left. Ezekiel’s fear is whether even that remaining portion will be ended.
ALSO GROWS
sha’ar: To remain or be left.
שָׁאַר
The verb names the condition Ezekiel fears will disappear: that something might still be left.
she’ar: The rest or remainder.
שְׁאָר
This related noun makes the remnant’s identity concrete as what remains after loss.
כָּלָה
kālāh
GROWS FROM
כלה
To finish, complete, or bring to an end.
“run out” in this verse is kālāh. The word for “full end” carries both completion and ending. Ezekiel’s question presses toward the fear of a conclusion with nothing left beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
kālāh: To be finished, come to an end, or be consumed.
כָּלָה
The verb’s range lets the question hold both an ending and the possibility of being consumed.
killāyōn: Destruction or wasting away.
כִּלָּיוֹן
This related noun shows how the root can describe an ending that consumes what remains.
THE PATTERN
Even under the threat of total erasure, Scripture gives the remnant a distinct place in the cry, the promise, and the ongoing story.
It may be that the LORD your God will hear all the words of the great giver of drink, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to taunt the living God, and will set right the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will turn back. The running out, decreed, will overflow with alignment.So also now, in this present season, there is a remnant left behind, picked out by favor.THE THREAD
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will turn back. The running out, decreed, will overflow with alignment.Ezekiel asks whether the שְׁאֵרִית (she’erit, “remnant”) will be brought to an end; Isaiah uses the related שְׁאָר (she’ar, “remainder”) and says that the remnant returns. The shared root makes what remains the hinge between the cry and the return.
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