What Does Ezekiel 25:14 Mean?
And I will set my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will do in Edom according to the burning of my anger and according to my heat, and they will perceive my vengeance, says the Lord GOD.
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 I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.THE KEY
Vengeance remains the LORD’s, yet it is placed in Israel’s hand, so Edom comes to know it through human action.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now in a hard register: the LORD’s vengeance is placed into Israel’s hand, and Israel acts against Edom according to divine anger and fury. Edom comes to know that vengeance through what is done there; the judgment is enacted, not left as a private feeling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that divine vengeance here is only a warning or an invisible sentiment: the text names Israel as the hand through which it is carried out.
THE ROOT
נָקָם
nāqām
GROWS FROM
נקם
To avenge, requite, or exact redress.
The same seed names both vengeance and the act of avenging. Here the LORD’s vengeance is placed in Israel’s hand, and Edom encounters it through what Israel does.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: to avenge
נָקַם
The verb names the action contained in the noun “vengeance.”
nōqēm: avenger; one who avenges
נֹקֵם
The same root can name the agent who carries the act out.
יָדְעוּ
yādaʿû
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“perceive my vengeance” in this verse is yādaʿû. The closing verb makes vengeance an encounter: Edom does not merely hear about it but comes to know it through what happens. Here the action in the verse makes that knowing concrete.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun carries the same root from knowing into what is known or understood.
maddāʿ: knowledge, learning
מַדָּע
This branch also grows from the root of knowing, showing its reach into acquired knowledge.
אֱדוֹם
ʾĕḏōm
GROWS FROM
אדם
Red; Edom’s name is linked to the word for red.
Edom is a name with meaning, not a blank label: it carries the sense “red,” a connection made explicit in Genesis 25:30. The verse’s judgment is directed toward a named people, not an abstract wrong.
ALSO GROWS
ʾādōm: red
אָדֹם
This adjective carries the meaning associated with Edom’s name.
ʾădāmāh: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
This related word shares the consonantal field and keeps the name connected to the concrete world of ground and soil.
THE PATTERN
The text names vengeance as God’s own claim while showing that it can be enacted through human hands.
To me belongs vengeance, and repayment. At its appointed time their foot slips, for the day of their falling is near, and what is readied comes hurrying upon them.Polish the arrows; fill the quivers. The LORD has roused the breath of the kings of the Medes, for his purpose is against Babylon, to ruin it, because it is the LORD'S vengeance, the vengeance of his temple.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
To me belongs vengeance, and repayment. At its appointed time their foot slips, for the day of their falling is near, and what is readied comes hurrying upon them.Both verses use נָקָם (nāqām), “vengeance.” Deuteronomy says vengeance belongs to God; Ezekiel shows it placed in Israel’s hand, making the human agent part of how that claim is enacted.
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