What Does Ezekiel 22:5 Mean?
Those near you and those far from you shall mock you, you who are stained in name and full of tumult.
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
Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.THE KEY
The mockery reaches both near and far because the city’s disgrace clings to its name and its tumult is public.
THE MEANING
The mockery reaches every distance: those nearby and those far away join in it. The Hebrew describes the city as “defiled of name” and abundant in tumult, so its disgrace is public and attached to what it is known for. The verse holds the reader inside the pain of having disorder repeated as identity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that distance can keep disgrace contained: here the near and the far join in the same mockery.
THE ROOT
טְמֵאַת הַשֵּׁם
ṭeme'at ha-shem
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
Be unclean; defile.
“stained in name” in this verse is ṭeme'at ha-shem. The Hebrew phrase means “defiled of name”: the stain reaches the name by which the city is known. The KJV’s “infamous” carries more than notoriety; the name itself is described as defiled.
ALSO GROWS
tamei: Unclean; defiled.
טָמֵא
This form names the condition attached to the city’s name.
tumah: Uncleanness; defilement.
טֻמְאָה
It shows that the root names a state of defilement, not merely a poor reputation.
רַבַּת הַמְּהוּמָה
rabbat hammehumah
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
Roar, murmur, or be in tumult.
“full of tumult” in this verse is rabbat hammehumah. The Hebrew describes the city as abundant in tumult. Its root also gives words for a noisy multitude and for confusion, making the city’s disorder sound public and crowded rather than merely inward distress.
ALSO GROWS
hamon: Multitude; noisy crowd or tumult.
הָמוֹן
It carries the root’s sense of commotion into a gathering of people.
mehumah: Tumult; confusion.
מְהוּמָה
This is the verse’s own word for the city’s upheaval.
הַקְּרֹבוֹת
ha-qerovot
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
The word for those near belongs to the same root as the act of drawing near. The verse sets it against a separate word for those far away, stretching the mockery across the whole distance.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
It is the singular form of the word describing those close to the city.
qorban: That which is brought near; drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
The shared root links nearness with approach, revealing the action within the spatial word.
THE PATTERN
When disgrace becomes public, people carry it into speech as mockery, accusation, or a byword.
All who pass by clap their palms at you. They whistle and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city they call the crown of beauty, the leaping of all the earth?And you shall become a desolation, a proverb, and a taunt, among all the nations to which the LORD shall drive you.And those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads, and saying, Ah, you who would loosen the temple, and build it in three days,THE THREAD
And I will set apart my great name, which was pierced among the nations, which you pierced in the midst of them, and the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I am set apart in you before their eyes.Ezekiel 22:5 calls the city “defiled of name”; this verse uses the same Hebrew word for name, שֵׁם (shem), and says that name is profaned among the nations. The shared word opens a movement from a name bearing public disgrace to a name made set apart before those same eyes.
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