What Does Ezekiel 17:18 Mean?
Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he had given his hand, and has done all these things, he shall not slip free.
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
Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.THE KEY
The hand makes the covenant visible, but breaking the bond cannot erase what the hand pledged.
THE MEANING
A pledge and the actions that follow it belong together: giving your hand makes the bond concrete, and breaking it does not make the pledge disappear. The verse speaks to the reader wherever a promise and the life that follows it part ways.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A pledge becomes meaningless once the moment has passed. The verse holds the broken bond and the given hand together.
THE ROOT
לְהָפֵר
lehafer
GROWS FROM
פָּרַר
parar
to break apart, frustrate, or make void
“breaking” in this verse is lehafer. The verb names an act that makes a bond void. The same root can describe a vow or covenant annulled, so the pledge of the hand and the breach remain joined in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
hefer: he broke or annulled
הֵפֵר
This form names the active breaking of a covenant or vow.
huppar: was broken or annulled
הֻפַּר
The passive form shows a bond rendered void; here the verse makes clear that the act of breaking still carries consequence.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נָתַן
natan
to give, set, or place
“given his hand” in this verse is natan. He gives his hand: the pledge is made concrete through an act of giving. This root links the offered hand to giving itself, placing a promise into another’s keeping.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
The root’s gift branch shows giving as something placed into another’s hands, like the pledge made here.
netinah: giving, a gift
נְתִינָה
This noun keeps the act of giving visible, illuminating the hand as a tangible pledge of the bond.
THE PATTERN
A pledged word binds its speaker to the deed, and its integrity is revealed by whether the bond is kept.
If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind a binding upon his living soul, he does not pierce his word; he does according to all that goes out of his mouth.In whose eyes the despised one is spurned, yet he gives weight to those in awe of the LORD. He swears to his own harm, and does not shift.But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.THE THREAD
And the uncut male, whose flesh of the foreskin is not cut, that living soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.“He hath broken” uses הֵפֵר (hefer, broke or annulled), from the same root as the breaking in Ezekiel. Both verses hold the broken covenant in view as a real breach, not a pledge erased by time.
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