What Does Ezekiel 14:4 Mean?
Therefore speak to them, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Every man of the house of Israel who lifts up his idols upon his heart, and sets the stumbling block of his crookedness before his face, and comes to the prophet, I, the LORD, will answer him in his coming according to the multitude of his idols.
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
Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;THE KEY
The seeker comes to the prophet, but the idols in the heart have already shaped the answer.
THE MEANING
You can seek a word while the idols set in your heart and the crookedness set before your face already shape the encounter. The LORD answers according to that multitude, bringing the hidden allegiance into the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sincere approach to a prophet makes the question neutral and leaves hidden idols outside the encounter.
THE ROOT
מִכְשׁוֹל
mikshol
GROWS FROM
כשל
kāshal
To stumble, totter, or fall.
“stumblingblock” in this verse is mikshol. The word for the stumbling block belongs to the same root as the words for stumbling and causing someone to stumble. The person places before his own face the very mechanism by which he falls.
ALSO GROWS
kāshal: To stumble or fall.
כָּשַׁל
The concrete obstacle is named from the fall it brings about.
hikshil: To cause someone to stumble.
הִכְשִׁיל
The same root holds both the stumbling and the causing of a fall, linking the obstruction to its effect.
mikshol: A stumbling block or obstacle.
מִכְשׁוֹל
This is the word in the verse: the obstacle is set directly before the seeker’s face.
לִבּוֹ
libbo
GROWS FROM
לבב
lēvāv
The heart or inner self.
The verse places the idols in the heart, the inner self that holds a person’s orientation. The encounter with the prophet does not begin from a blank center; what is held within is already present.
ALSO GROWS
lēv: Heart or inner center.
לֵב
This shorter form names the inward place where the verse says the idols are set.
lēvāv: Heart or inner self.
לֵבָב
This fuller form shares the root and makes clear that the verse concerns inward allegiance, not only visible objects.
נַעֲנֵיתִי
naʿaneiti
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿānāh
To answer or respond.
The answer belongs to the same verb family as a response or reply. Here the LORD’s answer is explicitly according to the seeker’s multitude of idols, so the response meets the inner orientation already brought to the encounter.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāh: To answer or respond.
עָנָה
This verb names the act of answering that appears in the verse.
maʿăneh: An answer or response.
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root names the response itself, connecting the seeker’s inner posture with the answer received.
THE PATTERN
What is held within a person shapes what is expressed or returned in the encounter.
I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.A good human casts forth good things out of the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human casts forth evil things out of the evil treasure.THE THREAD
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.The same Hebrew word, מִכְשׁוֹל (mikshol, stumbling block), appears in Isaiah. Ezekiel’s seeker places the obstacle before his own face; Isaiah shows the encounter with the LORD becoming a stumble for those who resist what it reveals.
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