What Does Ezekiel 18:13 Mean?
has lent at interest, and has taken increase; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these recoiling things; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
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
Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “usury” carries the image of a bite, so the added gain is pictured as something that injures, and whose taker bears the consequence.
THE MEANING
This verse names a life that turns lending into added gain as a life marked by abominations. Its repeated verdict, “he shall not live”, ends with “his blood shall be upon him,” placing responsibility on the one who acts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that gain from lending sits outside moral responsibility: the one who takes it bears the consequence.
THE ROOT
נֶשֶׁךְ
neshekh
GROWS FROM
נשך
To bite.
“at interest” in this verse is neshekh. English makes usury sound like an abstract charge; the Hebrew word retains the image of a bite. That bodily image lets the verse’s financial language carry the sense of injury beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: To bite.
נָשַׁךְ
This verb shares the root and makes the physical image audible within the word for usury.
noshekh: One who bites; a person who charges usury.
נֹשֵׁךְ
The lender’s role itself is formed from the same root as the bite, joining the person who takes interest to the image of injury.
תַּרְבִּית
tarbit
GROWS FROM
רבה
To increase, grow, or become many.
The verse pairs the bite with increase: it speaks of an added amount that grows the lender’s gain. The root keeps that enlargement visible as part of the act being judged.
ALSO GROWS
ravah: To increase or become many.
רָבָה
This is the basic growth sense carried by the word translated “increase.”
hirbah: To multiply or make many.
הִרְבָּה
This causative form shows the same root as an increase made to grow, illuminating the lender’s added gain.
THE PATTERN
When lending turns another’s need into an opportunity for added gain, the added charge remains morally accountable.
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.He does not give his silver at interest, nor take a gift against the clean one. He who does these will not totter for the ages.But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Highest, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.Both verses use נֶשֶׁךְ (neshekh, “bite”) for usury, preserving the same bodily image beneath the financial term. Exodus makes the borrower’s burden explicit; Ezekiel names the consequence for the one who takes the charge.
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