What Does Ezekiel 14:18 Mean?
Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they shall snatch neither sons nor daughters, but they alone shall be snatched.
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
Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root marks a hard boundary: they cannot cause another to escape, while they themselves are rescued.
THE MEANING
Even these men cannot carry their sons or daughters through judgment. Their own deliverance does not become a shield they can pass on; each person stands in their own relation to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A parent’s righteousness or spiritual standing guarantees a child’s deliverance.
THE ROOT
יַצִּילוּ
yaṣṣîlū
GROWS FROM
נצל
To snatch away, rescue, or remove from danger.
“snatch neither sons nor daughters” in this verse is yaṣṣîlū. Hebrew uses the same root in two different forms: first the men cannot cause another to escape, then they themselves are rescued. The verse distinguishes deliverance given to another from deliverance received; family ties do not make one person’s rescue transferable.
ALSO GROWS
yaṣṣîlū: They cause to escape; they rescue.
יַצִּילוּ
This active form describes what the men cannot do for their sons and daughters.
yinnāṣēlū: They are rescued; they escape.
יִנָּצֵלוּ
This form describes the men receiving deliverance themselves.
THE PATTERN
Another person’s standing cannot be transferred in place of one’s own before God.
But each one shall die in his own crookedness; every man who eats the unripe grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.The living soul that is missing shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor shall the father bear the crookedness of the son; the alignment of the aligned shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.THE THREAD
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they shall snatch neither son nor daughter; they shall snatch their own living souls by their alignment.The same root נצל (n-ṣ-l), meaning to rescue or extract from danger, appears in both verses. Here the three men are named, and their own righteousness is tied to their deliverance; even their standing does not extend to their children.
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