What Does Ezekiel 25:10 Mean?
To the men of the east, together with the Ammonites, and I will give them in possession, so that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.
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
Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.THE KEY
The judgment reaches beyond taking Ammon’s land: it removes the people from the nations’ memory as well.
THE MEANING
Here, judgment means the loss of both place and public remembrance: the Ammonites are handed over, and their name is no longer held among the nations. The verse describes a people’s presence being cut away from land and collective memory.
THE ROOT
תִּזָּכֵר
tizzāḵēr
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, bring to mind.
“remembered” in this verse is tizzāḵēr. The Hebrew verb comes from the same root as words for remembrance and memorial. In this verse, the loss is not only possession of land: Ammon is no longer held in the nations’ memory.
ALSO GROWS
zēḵer: Remembrance, memory, or mention.
זֵכֶר
This noun shares the root of “remembered,” making the loss of public memory explicit.
zikkārōn: Memorial, reminder, or remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps someone or something present in memory; the verse describes that presence disappearing among the nations.
מוֹרָשָׁה
mōrāšāh
GROWS FROM
ירש
Inherit, take possession, occupy.
“in possession” in this verse is mōrāšāh. The word for possession grows from a root that also means to inherit or take possession. Territory changes hands as an inheritance, while the following phrase extends the judgment from land to remembrance.
ALSO GROWS
yāraš: Inherit, take possession, or occupy.
יָרַשׁ
This verbal branch shows possession as an active transfer of who holds the land.
mōrāšāh: Possession or inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This is the noun used in the verse: the land is handed over as a possession.
THE PATTERN
Judgment can remove a people from both their place and the public memory that names them.
And it shall be, when the LORD your God gives you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to take hold of, that you shall wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget.The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.They are dead and will not live. The slackened ones will not rise. Therefore you have visited them and wiped them out, and you have caused all their memory to lose the way.THE THREAD
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.Ezekiel’s “remembered” and the Psalm’s “remembrance” come from the Hebrew root זכר (z-k-r), meaning remember or recall. The shared root shows that being removed from public memory is part of the judgment in both verses.
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