What Does Ezekiel 13:14 Mean?
So will I tear down the wall that you have daubed with tasteless plaster, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be laid bare, and it shall fall, and you shall be finished in its midst; and you shall perceive that I am the LORD.
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
So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.THE KEY
The wall falls so its foundation can be seen: what the coating hid becomes evidence of what the whole structure rests on.
THE MEANING
The wall you daub with untempered mortar is brought to the ground, exposing its foundation; you are consumed within the collapse, and there you know that I am the LORD. The covering gives way, and the concealed base is laid bare.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A polished surface does not make a weak structure sound; covering the flaw cannot prevent the foundation from being exposed.
THE ROOT
וְנִגְלָה
wə-niglah
GROWS FROM
גלה
galah: to uncover, expose, bring into view.
“laid bare” in this verse is wə-niglah. The foundation is not merely found; it is uncovered as the wall comes down. The root holds the physical act of removing a covering together with the revelation of what was hidden beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
galah: to uncover, reveal
גָּלָה
This basic verb shows the root’s concrete sense: taking away what conceals.
niglah: to be uncovered, revealed
נִגְלָה
This is the form used in the verse: the foundation comes into view when the wall collapses.
hitgallah: to reveal oneself, appear
הִתְגַּלָּה
The same root can describe something coming into visibility, not only someone finding it.
וְנָתַצְתִּי
wə-natatstî
GROWS FROM
נתץ
natats: to pull down, tear apart.
“tear down” in this verse is wə-natatstî. The verb names deliberate demolition, not a wall that simply wears away. Its destruction removes the false surface and opens the structure to view.
ALSO GROWS
natats: to pull down, demolish
נָתַץ
This is the root verb behind the LORD’s act of bringing the wall down.
menuttats: pulled down, demolished
מְנֻתָּץ
This form describes the wall’s condition once the act of demolition has taken hold.
יְסוֹדוֹ
yesodo
GROWS FROM
יסד
yasad: to set, establish, lay a foundation.
The word for foundation grows from the verb for setting or establishing. What is exposed is the settled base beneath the wall, revealing what the construction actually rests on.
ALSO GROWS
yasad: to establish, lay a foundation
יָסַד
The verb names the act that gives a structure its base.
yesod: foundation, basis
יְסוֹד
This noun names the underlying support that the verse says becomes visible.
THE PATTERN
When a covering shelters what cannot stand, its removal exposes the truth beneath it.
I will lay judgment to the measuring line, and alignment to the weighted line. Hail shall sweep away the shelter of lies, and waters shall sweep over the hiding place.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds breathed and fell against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.THE THREAD
And the weight of the LORD is uncovered, and all flesh sees it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.Isaiah uses the same root, גלה (galah), in “shall be revealed”: what is hidden comes into view. Ezekiel shows the severe edge of that disclosure, the foundation beneath a doomed wall is exposed as it falls.
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