What Does Ezekiel 16:51 Mean?
Samaria has not done half of your shortcomings; but you have multiplied your recoiling things more than they, and declared your sisters aligned in all your recoiling things which you have done.
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
Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.THE KEY
Your excess can turn the people you condemn into the ones who look aligned.
THE MEANING
Your multiplied detestable acts make those you condemn appear more aligned than you. Their wrong is not erased; your conduct shifts the comparison until they stand as the more righteous. The verse shows how judgment can expose the one who pronounces it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that condemning someone else confirms your own alignment; your actions can make the people you condemn appear more righteous.
THE ROOT
וַתְּצַדְּקִי
vatetsaddeqi
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right, just, or aligned; in this form, to declare or make righteous.
“declared aligned” in this verse is vatetsaddeqi. The Hebrew says that your actions justify your sisters, placing them in the right by comparison. The shared root connects that reversal to alignment: your conduct changes how the comparison places each of you.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Righteousness, justice, rightness, or alignment.
צֶדֶק
It reveals that “justified” belongs to the language of being set in the right.
tsaddiq: A righteous person; one regarded as in the right.
צַדִּיק
It echoes the verse’s startling claim that the sisters appear more righteous by comparison.
חַטֹּאתַיִךְ
chatto'tayikh
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, go wrong, or fail to reach a mark.
“shortcomings” in this verse is chatto'tayikh. The Hebrew keeps these wrongs in the word family of missing. The verse measures that missing and says its greater extent changes the comparison, without making the sisters’ own wrong disappear.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or do wrong.
חָטָא
It shows the shared root beneath the verse’s repeated “sins.”
chatat: A missing or wrongdoing; in ritual contexts, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
It preserves the connection between wrongdoing and what is named or addressed as missing.
תּוֹעֲבוֹתַיִךְ
to'avotayikh
GROWS FROM
תעב
To abhor or regard as detestable.
“abominations” in this verse is to'avotayikh. The verse repeats this word for the acts that make the comparison so severe. Its root ties the noun to abhorrence, giving the repeated charge a force beyond a neutral category of wrongdoing.
ALSO GROWS
ta'av: To abhor or regard as detestable.
תָּעַב
It exposes the verb of abhorrence inside the noun translated “abomination.”
to'evah: A detestable thing; an abomination.
תּוֹעֵבָה
It is the singular form of the repeated word that names the acts in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Comparison can reverse who appears aligned: the one being judged can become a measure against the judge.
You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your shortcomings, in which you have done more recoiling things than they; they are more aligned than you; yes, be ashamed also, and bear your shame, for you have declared your sisters aligned.The men of Nineveh will stand up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they turned at the proclaiming of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.I tell you, this man went down to his house aligned, rather than the other, for everyone who lifts himself up will be brought low, and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.THE THREAD
You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your shortcomings, in which you have done more recoiling things than they; they are more aligned than you; yes, be ashamed also, and bear your shame, for you have declared your sisters aligned.Both verses use the צדק (ts-d-q, rightness or alignment) word family: this verse says your actions justify your sisters, and the next says they are more righteous than you. The comparison does not erase what they have done; it reveals how your conduct shifts the measure.
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