What Does Ezekiel 11:15 Mean?
"Son of man, your brothers, your very brothers, the men of your kin, and the whole house of Israel, are the ones to whom those who settle in Jerusalem have said, 'Go far from the LORD. To us this land is given for possession.'"
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
Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession.THE KEY
The people Jerusalem tells to go far from the LORD are named with a word rooted in redeeming kinship.
THE MEANING
The verse shows how religious language can be used to expel: Jerusalem’s residents tell Ezekiel’s brothers to keep far from the LORD, then claim the land for themselves. Yet the verse keeps calling the expelled people his brethren and kindred; their identity is not erased by the city’s verdict. Its accusation lives wherever a claim to God’s favor becomes a license to deny another’s belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A community’s claim to the LORD and the land proves that the people it excludes are outside God’s belonging.
THE ROOT
גְּאֻלָּתֶךָ
ge’ullatekha
GROWS FROM
גאל
גָּאַל (ga’al) means to redeem, reclaim, or act as a kinsman.
The word rendered “kindred” belongs to the same word family as redeeming and acting as a kinsman. Jerusalem commands separation, yet the verse names the people it rejects through a bond associated with restoring kin and property.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: kinsman-redeemer
גֹּאֵל
This is the relative who reclaims a family member or family property, giving the verse’s kinship word a note of restoration.
ge’ullah: redemption; a kinsman’s right to reclaim
גְּאֻלָּה
It shares the seed of “kindred,” joining family belonging with the act of reclaiming what has been lost.
רַחֲקוּ
raḥaqū
GROWS FROM
רחק
רָחַק (raḥaq) means to be distant, go far, or move away.
“Go far” in this verse is raḥaqū. The word makes Jerusalem’s speech an active command to create distance from the LORD. Set beside “kindred,” it holds two opposing movements in one sentence: the people are told away while still being named as family.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: far, distant
רָחוֹק
This adjective describes the distance the residents demand between Ezekiel’s kin and the LORD.
hirḥiq: to remove or put far away
הִרְחִיק
This form makes distance something imposed, echoing the force of the residents’ command.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
אָדָם (adam) means human or ground-being, and is linked here to אֲדָמָה (adamah), ground or soil.
אָדָם (adam, human or ground-being) shares its consonants with אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground). “Son of man” keeps Ezekiel within shared, earth-born humanity as the residents divide belonging into “us” and “them.”
ALSO GROWS
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The shared word-shape roots the human being in common ground, an echo beside the residents’ claim to the land.
adom: red
אָדֹם
This related form shares the consonants אדם, linking the ground-being to the earth’s reddish color.
THE PATTERN
A community’s exclusion cannot erase the kinship or belonging that God names.
If your brother totters and sells some of his holding, and his nearest blood-redeemer comes to him, then he shall buy back what his brother sold.Let not the son of the foreigner, who has attached himself to the LORD, say, The LORD will surely divide me from his people. And let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the set-apart ones, and of the household of God.THE THREAD
If your brother totters and sells some of his holding, and his nearest blood-redeemer comes to him, then he shall buy back what his brother sold.Ezekiel’s “kindred” and Leviticus’s “kin” belong to גאל (ga’al, redeem or act as a kinsman). The kinship Jerusalem dismisses is elsewhere the bond that reclaims a brother’s lost holding.
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