What Does Ezekiel 20:5 Mean?
And say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD. In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand toward the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up my hand to them, saying, I am the LORD your God.
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
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;THE KEY
The repeated raised hand carries the pledge that God makes himself known as Israel’s God from within Egypt’s narrowness.
THE MEANING
God’s choosing of Israel is joined to a raised hand of pledge and to God making himself known as “the LORD your God.” Egypt (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim, the narrow place) is where this belonging is voiced from within constriction. The declaration speaks now by holding choosing, knowing, and belonging together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that choosing is merely a label without relationship: it joins selection to a pledged hand and God’s self-disclosure as “the LORD your God.”
THE ROOT
וָאֶשָּׂא
va'essa
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted up my hand” in this verse is va'essa. “Lift up my hand” is an oath gesture, and its verb also means to carry or bear. The repeated gesture presents God’s claim as a pledge borne toward Jacob’s descendants.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear; raising a hand can also express an oath.
נָשָׂא
The verb names both the raised hand in Ezekiel and the bearing of a commitment.
massa: A burden or load; also an oracle or pronouncement.
מַשָּׂא
The burden is something carried, echoing the root’s sense beneath the raised hand.
nasi: A chief or prince, a leader raised among the people.
נָשִׂיא
The title carries the root’s sense of being lifted up.
וָאִוָּדַע
va'ivvada
GROWS FROM
יָדַע
yada
To know or perceive.
“made myself known” in this verse is va'ivvada. The form says that God makes himself known, rather than merely supplying information about himself. The words that follow give this knowing its content: “I am the LORD your God.”
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive, including through encounter.
יָדַע
It is the root of God’s self-disclosure in the verse.
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This branch shows knowing as something held and understood, growing from the same root.
mada: Knowledge or learning.
מַדָּע
It extends the root’s field from knowing to knowledge.
בָּחַר
bachar
GROWS FROM
בָּחַר
bachar
To choose or select.
“chose” in this verse is bachar. The root marks a deliberate selection, and the sentence names Israel as the seed of Jacob. That choosing is voiced together with God’s pledged hand and self-disclosure, so selection becomes a relationship spoken aloud.
ALSO GROWS
mivchar: The choicest or best selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch makes the act of choosing visible in what is selected.
bachir: A chosen one or an elect person.
בָּחִיר
It names the person as one selected, echoing Israel’s naming in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Choosing takes shape in belonging to God, coming to know God, and being called out of constriction.
And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and you shall perceive that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the loads of the Egyptians.For you are a set-apart people unto the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people of his own treasure, above all the peoples who are upon the face of the ground.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.THE THREAD
For I lift up my hand to the heavens, and I say, I live for the ages.Both verses use נָשָׂא (nasa, lift or carry) for raising a hand; in Deuteronomy, the hand is lifted toward heaven with an oath-like declaration. That echo reveals Ezekiel’s repeated gesture as a pledge carried inside the words “I am the LORD your God.”
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