What Does Ezekiel 21:25 Mean?
And you, pierced wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, when crookedness reaches its end.
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 thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “prince” grows from נשׂא, “to lift,” placing the ruler’s elevation beside the day his crookedness reaches its end.
THE MEANING
A person can hold an elevated position while carrying a crooked condition, yet that condition still reaches its limit. The arriving day brings that limit into view; rank does not lift anyone beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that status can shield a person from the end their crookedness brings.
THE ROOT
נְשִׂיא
nəsîʾ
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
to lift, carry, or bear
נְשִׂיא names a chief or prince as one raised up. The same root also speaks of carrying a burden, so elevation and what one bears belong to the same word-family, a striking pairing in a verse that places this prince beside his crookedness and its end.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: to lift, carry, or bear
נָשָׂא
This verb supplies the root of the title: the prince is the one raised up.
maśśāʾ: a burden or load
מַשָּׂא
This noun shares the root, connecting being lifted up with what is carried.
רָשָׁע
rāšāʿ
GROWS FROM
רשע
to be wicked or guilty
The same consonants name both the person and the condition: רָשָׁע is a wicked or guilty person, while רֶשַׁע is wickedness. The verse binds the prince’s identity to the condition it names; his title does not cover it.
ALSO GROWS
rešaʿ: wickedness or guilt
רֶשַׁע
This noun uses the same root consonants to name the condition attributed to the wicked person.
hiršîaʿ: to act wickedly or declare guilty
הִרְשִׁיעַ
This verb makes the same root active, describing wicked conduct or a finding of guilt.
THE PATTERN
Elevation cannot shield a person when the day arrives that brings their condition low.
For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one who swells and is high, and upon every one who is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, falling short crouches at the door. Its reaching is toward you, and you shall rule over it.The title נְשִׂיא (nəsîʾ, “prince”) comes from נשׂא, “to lift or carry.” Genesis 4:7 uses the same root in שְׂאֵת (śəʾēt), rendered “accepted” in the KJV and carrying the sense of lifting; the shared root opens a tension between being elevated and the condition one bears.
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