What Does Ezekiel 16:53 Mean?
When I bring back their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then I will bring back the captivity of your captives in the midst of them;
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
When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:THE KEY
God’s return does not erase captivity from the sentence; it reaches the people while they are still named by it.
THE MEANING
Restoration gathers Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem’s captives into one return. Captivity remains named, yet it is no longer the final condition: the verse places the reader’s exile within a movement that brings people back together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that disgrace places some people beyond restoration, or that one person’s return must exclude another’s: it names Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem’s captives together.
THE ROOT
וְשַׁבְתִּי
ve-shavti
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
turn, return
“bring back” in this verse is ve-shavti. The verb וְשַׁבְתִּי (ve-shavti, I will return) echoes the sound of שְׁבוּת (shevut, captivity or fortune), though they come from distinct roots. The return turns toward people whose captivity remains named in the sentence.
ALSO GROWS
tashuv: you return
תָּשׁוּב
The same root can name a return to one’s origin; here it frames captivity as a condition that can be turned back.
meshubah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
The root also names a turning away, so its return branch carries the possibility of reversing a departure.
שְׁבוּת
shevut
GROWS FROM
שׁבה
sh-b-h
take captive, carry away
The repeated noun שְׁבוּת (shevut, captivity or fortune) keeps the captive condition audible for Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Paired with the verb for return, it holds both the wound and the reversal in the same phrase.
ALSO GROWS
shavah: take captive
שָׁבָה
The verb names the action behind the condition that the verse says will be turned.
shevi: captivity, captives
שְׁבִי
This related noun makes the people held within the condition visible, not only the condition itself.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes the form of return: the captive condition is named as the place from which people are brought back.
And the LORD returned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD added to all that was Job's, twice over.A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the return of Zion, we were like dreamers.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then you and your daughters shall return to your former state.Verse 55 makes explicit what verse 53 compresses: all three communities return to a former condition. The repeated root שׁוּב (shuv, return) ties restoration to return itself, while verse 53 keeps the captive condition in view.
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