What Does Ezekiel 12:21 Mean?

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Ezekiel 12:21 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for “word” can also mean “matter” or “thing,” joining the speech that arrives with the reality it carries.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s word reaches you as an address before it gives its content. The verse holds a moment of receiving: the word arrives, and then it speaks.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

davar

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

To speak or declare; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.

Davar can name both spoken words and the matter or thing being spoken of. Here, “the word ... came” carries a quiet doubleness: speech arrives with the matter it bears.

ALSO GROWS

dibber: He spoke.

דִּבֶּר

The same root names the act of speaking, so the arriving word is an utterance, not merely an idea.

devarim: Words, matters, or things.

דְּבָרִים

This plural form preserves the link between what is said and the matter it concerns.

THE PATTERN

The word of God is active speech: it reaches people and brings realities into being.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · SDVThe word reaches a person as an arriving address, just as it does here.

While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Luke 3:2 · SDVThe word again comes to a person, presenting divine speech as something received.

By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6 · SDVHere the word’s activity reaches beyond a person and brings the heavens into being.

THE THREAD

For I am the LORD. I will speak, and the word I speak shall be done. It shall no more be drawn out. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a word and do it, says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 12:25 · SDV

The same Hebrew root appears in “I will speak” and “the word”: both carry the consonants ⁨דבר⁩. The speech that arrives is joined to the matter that comes to pass.

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