What Does Ezekiel 18:22 Mean?
All the rebellions that he has done, they shall not be remembered to him; in the alignment he has done, he shall live.
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
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.THE KEY
The past rebellion is no longer the person’s defining account; enacted alignment is bound to life.
THE MEANING
Your rebellions are not recalled as the final charge defining you. The alignment you enact is bound to life now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The rebellion in my past is the permanent account by which my life is defined.
THE ROOT
יִזָּכְרוּ
yizzāḵərû
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, or bring into mention.
The Hebrew says the rebellions will not be “remembered to him.” The image is not that the past never happened, but that it is no longer brought forward as his defining charge.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
This branch shows the same root’s sense of keeping something present in memory; here, the rebellion is not kept before the person as a standing charge.
hizkîr: mention, bring to mind
הִזְכִּיר
This form makes remembering an act of bringing something forward, illuminating what it means for the rebellion not to be mentioned to him.
פְּשָׁעָיו
pešaʿāv
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-š-ʿ
Rebel or break away; the word carries the sense of rebellion or breach.
“rebellions” in this verse is pešaʿāv. The verse names real rebellion rather than a vague mistake, then says that rebellion does not remain the person’s defining account. Its force is sharpened by the next phrase: the person lives in the alignment he has done.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: rebellion, breach
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the rupture directly, matching the verse’s clear naming of what has been committed.
pōšēaʿ: one who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This form describes the person through the act of breaking away; the verse refuses to let that description stand as the final account.
צִדְקָתוֹ
ṣidqātô
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Be just or right; the project’s root sense is alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is ṣidqātô. The verse ties this alignment to what the person has done, not only to a label attached to him. What is enacted in right relation is joined here to life.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: justice, rightness
צֶדֶק
This branch names the quality of right relation that gives “righteousness” its root-level sense of alignment.
ṣaddîq: a just or aligned person
צַדִּיק
This branch shows how the root can describe a person by the quality of their alignment, not by a past act of rebellion.
THE PATTERN
A past rebellion does not have to remain a person’s defining account; life appears in alignment with what is right.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.None of his shortcomings in which he has missed the mark shall be mentioned to him; he has done judgment and alignment; he shall surely live.Likewise count yourselves dead to falling short, but alive to God in Jesus, the Anointed One, our Lord.THE THREAD
And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and his brother, saying, Perceive the LORD, for they shall all perceive me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will release their crookedness, and their shortcomings I will remember no more.Jeremiah uses זכר (z-k-r, zakar: remember or call to mind), the same root carried by Ezekiel’s “mentioned.” Together, the verses show release as a change in what is held against the person: rebellion is no longer brought forward as the defining account.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us