What Does Ezekiel 14:22 Mean?
Yet, look, there shall be left in it a remnant that shall be brought out, sons and daughters. Look, they shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their deeds, and you shall be comforted concerning the harm that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.
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
Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.THE KEY
Consolation comes through seeing the survivors emerge and their way and deeds become visible, while the evil remains named.
THE MEANING
When devastation leaves survivors, they do not remain an abstract remainder: they emerge into view, and their way and actions can be seen. The verse places consolation in that encounter with what remains and what it reveals. The evil is still named as evil; seeing the survivors does not erase it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that comfort requires pretending the devastation was harmless: here, consolation comes while the evil remains named and the survivors’ conduct is seen.
THE ROOT
וְנִחַמְתֶּם
venichamtem
GROWS FROM
נחם
Console or comfort; in other forms, relent or regret.
“you shall be comforted” in this verse is venichamtem. This verse uses the comfort sense of נ־ח־ם; elsewhere the same root names relenting or regret, keeping consolation near a changed response to what has happened. Here comfort is tied to a precise sight, the remnant’s way and deeds, not to forgetting the evil.
ALSO GROWS
mənaḥēm: Comforter, one who consoles.
מְנַחֵם
This form makes the root’s consoling sense visible as an action offered to another.
niḥam: Relented or regretted.
נִחַם
This form shows the same root can describe a changed response to what has happened, adding depth to the verse’s language of consolation.
הַמּוּצָאִים
hamutza’im
GROWS FROM
יצא
Go out, come out, emerge.
“that shall be brought out” in this verse is hamutza’im. The same root appears first in a form meaning brought out and again as coming out. The survivors move from being brought out to visibly emerging before you; English gives the repeated Hebrew seed two different phrases.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: Go out, come forth.
יָצָא
This is the verb underlying both forms in the verse, giving the remnant’s appearance the shape of emergence.
môṣāʾ: An outlet or exit.
מוֹצָא
The same root can name a way out, echoing the survivors’ movement from devastation into view.
פְּלֵיטָה
pəlēṭāh
GROWS FROM
פלט
Escape, get away, survive.
The word rendered remnant comes from a root meaning escape or get away. It frames those left within the devastation as survivors who have passed through it and now stand in view; the repeated language of coming out makes that survival visible.
ALSO GROWS
pālaṭ: Escape, slip away.
פָּלַט
This verb reveals survival as having escaped devastation, not merely being a remainder.
pālīṭ: A survivor or fugitive.
פָּלִיט
This related noun names the person who escapes, giving the remnant a human face in the sons and daughters who emerge.
THE PATTERN
Consolation can arise within affliction and travel onward through what remains.
It is by the faithful love of the LORD that we are not used up, for his compassions do not run out.This is my comfort in my bowing low, for your word has brought me to life.Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.THE THREAD
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down to the grave, to my son, mourning. So his father wept for him.The same Hebrew root נחם (n-ḥ-m; naḥam), meaning to console or comfort, appears in comfort him and be comforted. Genesis shows that comfort can be offered yet refused; here, it is tied to seeing what emerges and how it lives.
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