What Does Ezekiel 20:27 Mean?
Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD. Yet in this your fathers have reviled me, in that they have broken trust with me.
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
Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.THE KEY
The verse exposes rupture as both contempt that spurns God and action that breaches faith with God.
THE MEANING
The verse brings two forms of rupture into the reader’s present view: contempt toward God and a breach enacted against God. Its phrase “your fathers” leaves inherited patterns visible, while the command to speak makes the naming immediate. The two charges stay distinct: one names spurning, the other acting unfaithfully.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that contempt and breach are interchangeable labels: the verse names spurning and acted unfaithfulness side by side.
THE ROOT
נִאֲצוּ
ni'atsu
GROWS FROM
נאץ
To spurn or treat with contempt.
The verb translated “blasphemed” comes from a word for spurning or contempt, so the charge reaches beyond spoken insult to a stance of treating God with contempt. The next phrase names a breach against God, giving that spurning a concrete relational counterpart.
ALSO GROWS
ni'ets: Despises; treats with contempt.
נִאֵץ
Psalm 10:13 uses this form for contempt toward God, showing the same root behind Ezekiel’s charge.
ve-ni'atsuni: And they will spurn me.
וְנִאֲצוּנִי
Deuteronomy 31:20 uses this form for spurning God, making the root’s relational direction explicit.
מָעֲלוּ
ma'alu
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act unfaithfully or commit a breach.
“broken trust with” in this verse is ma'alu. This root describes a breach of faith, not merely a mistake. Beside the word for spurning, it gives the rupture two dimensions: contempt toward God and unfaithfulness enacted against God.
ALSO GROWS
me'ilah: Unfaithfulness; a breach or trespass.
מְעִילָה
Leviticus 5:15 uses this noun for a trespass involving the LORD’s holy things, showing that the root can name a breach in a sacred relationship.
vayim'alu: They acted unfaithfully; they transgressed.
וַיִּמְעֲלוּ
In 1 Chronicles 5:25 the same verb describes a breach against God, echoing Ezekiel’s direct phrase “against me.”
THE PATTERN
Rupture toward God is exposed in both the contempt that spurns and the actions that breach trust.
Why does the wicked spurn God? He says in his heart, You will not seek it out.Because you broke trust against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not set me apart in the midst of the children of Israel.You who boast in instruction, through the stepping across of instruction do you strip God of worth?THE THREAD
Why does the wicked spurn God? He says in his heart, You will not seek it out.The verb translated “blasphemed” here comes from נאץ (na’ats, to spurn or treat with contempt), the same root behind “contemn” in Psalm 10:13. That shared word sharpens Ezekiel’s paired charge: spurning God stands beside a breach enacted against God.
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