What Does Ezekiel 16:1 Mean?
And the word of the LORD came to me again, 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
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “word” can also mean “matter,” so the LORD’s address arrives carrying more than language alone.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word comes to you as an address with substance, not merely an idea you generate. The verse holds the instant before that address takes form in speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that every truth begins inside your own thinking: here the word arrives before the saying.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
dəvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
The verb root means “speak” or “address”; the noun דָּבָר (dābār) means “word,” “matter,” or “affair.”
The Hebrew noun דָּבָר (dābār, “word; matter; affair”) belongs to the root דבר (d-b-r, “speak”), so what arrives is both utterance and matter. English “word” can sound like a string of language; Hebrew keeps open the sense of a spoken address carrying the matter itself.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root links the word that arrives with the act of speaking that follows.
dəvārim: words; matters
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves both senses, showing how speech and the matter spoken of remain joined.
THE PATTERN
The word of the LORD is pictured as arriving to a person and initiating what is then said.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.THE THREAD
Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear and respond to the word of the LORD.The same Hebrew דְּבַר־יְהוָה (dəvar-YHWH, “word of the LORD”) is directed to dry bones, where the call to hear makes the arrival more than a message received privately. The word moves from arriving to an address that reaches what seems unable to respond.
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