What Does Ezekiel 14:12 Mean?
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
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
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “word” also means “matter”: what the LORD says is already the matter coming into view.
THE MEANING
This line is a threshold: the word arrives, and “saying” leaves the matter open for what follows. As you read now, the verse draws attention to a word arriving before its contents are disclosed.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak or declare
Dābār (דָּבָר) can mean both a spoken word and a matter or affair. Hebrew holds utterance and subject together, so this opening announces more than speech: it brings a matter into view for what follows to disclose.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: word, matter, or affair
דָּבָר
The word arriving here is also the matter about to be disclosed.
dibbēr: spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root shows the act of speaking that gives the word its voice.
THE PATTERN
God’s spoken word is presented as speech that reaches beyond sound into outcome.
For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.THE THREAD
For straight is the word of the LORD, and all his works are done in steadiness.“Word” here is dābār (דָּבָר, “word” or “matter”), the same Hebrew word used in Ezekiel’s opening. Psalm 33:4 places that word beside God’s works, opening Ezekiel’s announcement as a concrete matter whose content is about to unfold.
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