What Does Ezekiel 12:10 Mean?
Say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, This burden is for the lifted one in Jerusalem, and for all the house of Israel who are among 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
Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.THE KEY
The Hebrew roots of “burden” and “prince” converge in lifting and carrying: the elevated ruler stands where the weight lands.
THE MEANING
The word’s weight lands on the one carrying authority in Jerusalem and reaches the whole house within that circle. What concerns the ruler is not sealed off as a private matter; the people gathered around him are named inside the same disclosure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what weighs on a ruler can remain private, leaving the people around him untouched.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
maśśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
to lift, carry, bear
The Hebrew word for “burden” comes from נשא, “to lift or carry”; נָשִׂיא, “prince,” comes from that same seed, with the sense of one elevated. The verse places the weight and the elevated ruler in one word-family, then names the whole house within their sphere as part of the same disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: to lift, carry, bear
נָשָׂא
This verb is the seed beneath the word translated “burden,” giving the oracle the sense of weight that is carried.
nāśîʾ: prince, chief; one elevated
נָשִׂיא
The verse names the prince alongside the burden; both words share נשא, linking the elevated ruler to what is carried.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats burdens as communal weight, reaching from the authority that carries or imposes it to the people who share it.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.For they tie up heavy loads, hard to lift, and lay them on the shoulders of people, but they themselves will not move them, even with one of their fingers.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.The noun מַשָּׂא (maśśāʾ, “burden/oracle”), from נשא (nāśāʾ, “lift, carry”), opens both prophecies. Isaiah applies it to Babylon as a whole; Ezekiel directs that same word toward the prince and the house within his orbit.
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