What Does Ezekiel 23:23 Mean?
The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, all of them desirable young men, governors and officials, princes and the called ones, all of them riders on horses.
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
The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.THE KEY
This verse lets attraction and domination occupy the same image: power can be desirable, prestigious, and mounted at once.
THE MEANING
This catalogue places desire beside rank and military force: desirable young men, rulers, renowned figures, and horses. Attraction and threat share the scene, so prestige does not prove that the power is safe to join. Even the name Babylon carries Scripture’s wordplay with confusion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that desirability, public renown, or overwhelming strength proves an attachment is safe.
THE ROOT
חֶמֶד
ḥemed
GROWS FROM
חמד
To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
The desirable men are described with the same root that can name coveting. Attraction and the impulse to grasp are branches of one seed here.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
חָמַד
The root links the verse’s appeal with the language of coveting.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This branch shows how what is wanted can be regarded as precious.
בְּנֵי־בָבֶל
bene Bavel
GROWS FROM
בלל
To mix or confuse; Genesis 11:9 links Babel’s name with this verb through wordplay.
“Babylonians” in this verse is bene Bavel. Genesis itself pairs Babel (בָּבֶל, Bavel, Babel/Babylon) with בָּלַל (balal, to confuse or mix); this is Scripture’s wordplay, not a claim about historical etymology. That link gives the name a shadow of confusion behind the verse’s alluring catalogue of power.
ALSO GROWS
balal: To mix or confuse.
בָּלַל
Genesis 11:9 uses this verb in its explanation of Babel’s name.
Bavel: Babel or Babylon, the place name.
בָּבֶל
Genesis 11:9 links the name to confusion through wordplay.
קְרוּאִים
qeru’im
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call, proclaim, or summon.
The word rendered “renowned” carries the sense of “called ones.” Their appeal includes public recognition: these are people known and designated by name.
ALSO GROWS
qārāʾ: To call, proclaim, or summon.
קָרָא
The root makes the verse’s renown a matter of being called or named.
miqrāʾ: A convocation, assembly, or public reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can gather people into public recognition or assembly.
THE PATTERN
Desire can make power look worthy of attachment before its consequences are visible.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.Some lean their full weight on chariots, and some on horses; but we remember in the nature of the LORD our God.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
You shall not desire your neighbor's house. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.“Desirable” comes from חמד (ḥ-m-d), the same root rendered “covet” and “desire” here. The shared root joins attraction to the impulse to possess: both grow from the same seed.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us