What Does Ezekiel 12:13 Mean?
I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it. And there he shall die.
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
My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.THE KEY
The hunt carries him to the land where he dies, yet the destination remains closed to his sight.
THE MEANING
The verse holds capture and blindness together: he is carried to Babylon, yet cannot see the land where he dies. The snare reaches beyond movement, closing even around the moment of arrival.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that being brought to a destination means you will behold it: the journey ends there, while sight does not.
THE ROOT
מְצוּדָתִי
metsudati
GROWS FROM
צוד
To hunt, pursue, or catch.
“snare” in this verse is metsudati. The word means “my hunting trap,” from the root for hunting and catching. The image makes him the prey: the net closes over him, and the hunt ends only when he is caught.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Hunting; game or hunted prey.
צַיִד
This branch names both the hunt and its quarry, revealing the snare as part of a hunt rather than a mere obstacle.
metsod: Hunting gear or a net; also a stronghold.
מְצוֹד
The same root can name the device that catches and a place that holds, echoing how the capture carries him to a place he cannot leave.
וּפָרַשְׂתִּי
u-farasti
GROWS FROM
פרשׂ
To spread out or stretch forth.
The verb describes the net being extended over him; it means spreading, while the root of “snare” supplies the purpose of that spread. Together they turn open space into enclosure.
ALSO GROWS
yifros: He spreads out, as wings are spread.
יִפְרֹשׂ
The same motion can extend wings; here it extends a net, showing that what matters is what is spread over him.
vayifros: He spread out, as hands are stretched forth.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ
The root describes extension itself; in this verse, that extension becomes the opening move of a hunt.
THE PATTERN
A snare can turn the path forward into the very place where capture closes around someone.
The lifted ones have hidden a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net beside the path; they have set traps for me. Selah.For humankind does not perceive its time. As fish are caught in an evil net, and as birds are caught in the snare, so humankind is caught in an evil time, when it falls upon them in a flash.For like a snare it will come in upon all who sit upon the face of the whole earth.THE THREAD
And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and blinded Zedekiah, and bound him with bronze chains, and carried him to Babylon.This verse makes “he shall not see it” concrete: his eyes are put out before he is carried to Babylon. The capture closes around his sight as well as his movement.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us