What Does Ezekiel 13:20 Mean?
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against your cushions, with which you there hunt the living souls to make them fly; and I will tear them from your arms, and I will send away the living souls, even the living souls that you hunt to make them fly.
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
Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.THE KEY
The “souls” being hunted are living people, and God’s answer is to release them from the hunters’ grasp.
THE MEANING
God stands against the devices used to hunt people and drive them away. The repeated word “souls” names living beings, not detachable spirits. The promise is concrete: the devices are torn from the hunters’ arms, and the people they target are released.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that spiritual power makes it acceptable to prey on people is undone: God stands against the tools and releases those caught in their reach.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי
veshillachti
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release, let go.
“send away” in this verse is veshillachti. The final action is not merely that the hunted escape: God sends them out of the hunters’ hold. This root makes release the direct answer to the hunt.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Send away; release.
שַׁלַּח
This is the imperative behind “Let my people go” in Exodus 5:1, where release means sending people out from a captor’s hold.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 glosses Siloam as “Sent,” preserving the root’s sense of being sent forth.
הַנְּפָשׁוֹת
hannephashot
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
A living being; the whole living self.
“souls” in this verse is hannephashot. Nefesh names a living soul, a person in the fullness of life. Here, the hunters are targeting people themselves, and those same living beings are the ones God releases.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: A living soul; a person.
נֶפֶשׁ
The singular form shows why “souls” here need not mean detachable spirits: the hunted are living people.
nafash: Refresh oneself; rest.
נָפַשׁ
This related form carries a sense of restoration, sharpening the contrast between hunting a living self and releasing it.
מְצֹדְדוֹת
metzod'dot
GROWS FROM
צוד
ṣ-w-d
Hunt, pursue, catch.
The verb describes deliberate pursuit, and its object is the living soul. “Hunt the souls” is a predatory image: the verse names people as prey and promises their release.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Game; hunted prey.
צַיִד
This noun makes the prey within the hunting image explicit: the people are treated as quarry.
tsayyad: Hunter.
צַיָּד
The related noun names the pursuer, showing that the verse describes an active hunt rather than a vague harm.
THE PATTERN
When people are held under oppression, God’s action is to break the hold and release them.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Who makes judgment for the pressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD loosens the bound.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The same Hebrew root, שָׁלַח (shalach), carries both “Let my people go” and “I will let the souls go.” The shared word makes release the concrete end of the hunt: those held by power are sent out of its grasp.
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