What Does Ezekiel 21:29 Mean?
While they see emptiness for you, while they divine a lie for you, to set you upon the necks of the pierced, of the wicked, 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
Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.THE KEY
A false oracle can masquerade as sight while steering you toward the slain.
THE MEANING
False sight and false prediction can direct you toward the slain; the violence in the verse remains stark, with the wicked reaching their appointed day. The crookedness named here reaches its end, while its consequences remain visible. The verse exposes how a lie that claims insight can help carry you into ruin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a confident vision is reliable because it claims access to what you cannot see. False certainty can direct you into death.
THE ROOT
כָּזָב
kazav
GROWS FROM
כזב
Lie, deceive, fail, or prove false.
“lie” in this verse is kazav. This root supplies forms for both deceiving and failing or proving false. The oracle’s claim to show a way forward collapses into the scene of the slain.
ALSO GROWS
kizzev: To lie or deceive.
כִּזֵּב
The lie in the verse belongs to the same root family as the act of deceiving.
nikhzav: To fail or prove false.
נִכְזָב
This branch reveals the lie’s failure: its claim of insight does not hold.
קֹסְמִים
qosemim
GROWS FROM
קסם
Practice divination.
“divine” in this verse is qosemim. The verse names a practice of divination alongside the falsehood it produces. Its warning concerns a claim to hidden knowledge, not only a stray mistaken statement.
ALSO GROWS
qosem: A diviner.
קֹסֵם
The plural form in this verse belongs to the same family as the person who practices divination.
qesem: Divination.
קֶסֶם
This noun names the practice behind the false prediction.
רְשָׁעִים
resha'im
GROWS FROM
רשע
Act wickedly or be guilty.
“of the wicked” in this verse is resha'im. This root can name the wicked person and the wickedness itself. The verse places the wicked at their day of reckoning as their wrongdoing reaches its end.
ALSO GROWS
rasha: A wicked person.
רָשָׁע
This singular form shares the root of the plural group named in the verse.
resha: Wickedness.
רֶשַׁע
The root links the people described as wicked with the condition their day brings to its limit.
THE PATTERN
Falsehood can claim to reveal what is hidden, yet its direction carries people toward ruin.
Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my nature. I did not send them, nor have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false seeing and a divining, and a hollow thing, and the daubing of their heart.There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.and with all the deceit of misalignment among those who are perishing, because they did not take in the love of the truth so that they might be delivered.THE THREAD
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should relent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it stand?The word translated “lie” shares the Hebrew root כזב with the false oracle in Ezekiel. Numbers sets that failing falsehood beside speech that holds true and is made good.
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