What Does Ezekiel 11:5 Mean?
And the breath of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, "Speak. Thus says the LORD. Thus you have said, house of Israel, and I perceive the things rising upon your breath, every one of them."
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 Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.THE KEY
One Hebrew word, ruach, names both the LORD’s breath that comes upon the speaker and the inner breath whose rising the LORD knows.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s breath comes upon the speaker and brings a word into speech, while the rising within you is already known. What has not yet become words is still within that knowing; the verse holds the inward stirring and the spoken word together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that unspoken thoughts remain hidden from God until they are voiced: even their first rising is already known.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach ruachem
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
resh-vav-chet
Breath or moving air; by extension, wind, spirit, or inward disposition.
“breath” in this verse is ruach ruachem. The Hebrew repeats ruach in this verse: the LORD’s ruach comes upon the speaker, and the “risings” of the people’s ruach are what the LORD knows. English renders the first “Spirit” and the second “mind,” concealing that both expressions grow from the same word.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind
רוּחַ
This is moving air, one sense of the same word used for the LORD’s presence coming upon the speaker.
ruach: Breath
רוּחַ
The final phrase speaks of the people’s ruach, their inward breath; the KJV renders the whole phrase as what comes into their mind.
ruach: Spirit or inward disposition
רוּחַ
The KJV’s “Spirit” and “mind” sit on either side of one Hebrew word, linking the divine movement and the human inward stirring.
מַעֲלוֹת
maʿalot
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ayin-lamed-he
To go up or rise.
“rising upon your breath” in this verse is maʿalot. The phrase translated “things that come into your mind” literally evokes the risings of your ruach. The image is of inner movements rising into awareness, all already known.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up or rise
עָלָה
This verb gives the phrase its image of an inward movement rising.
ʿolah: A burnt offering that goes up
עֹלָה
This noun carries the root’s sense of ascent, echoing the verse’s language of what rises.
יְדַעְתִּיהָ
yedaʿtiha
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
yod-dalet-ayin
To know or recognize.
“perceive” in this verse is yedaʿtiha. The LORD’s knowing here meets what rises within, not only what a person says aloud. The verse places inward movement within that direct knowing before it becomes public speech.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or recognize
יָדַע
This is the root verb behind the LORD’s knowing in the verse.
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding
דַּעַת
This related form shows the root’s movement from knowing into knowledge.
hodia: To make known
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form shares the root and echoes the verse’s movement from inward knowing to spoken words.
THE PATTERN
God’s knowing reaches a person’s inward movement before it becomes public speech.
You perceive my sitting and my rising, and from afar you separate out my thought.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.And he had no need for anyone to bear witness about humankind, for he knew what was within humankind.THE THREAD
And the earth was unshaped and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the breath of God was fluttering over the face of the waters.Genesis uses the same Hebrew word, ruach, translated “Spirit,” for God’s moving breath over the waters. Here that word also names the inner breath whose rising is known, linking the breath that moves over creation with the breath moving within a person.
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