What Does Ezekiel 26:14 Mean?
I will set you as a bare rock. You will be a spreading ground for nets. You will not be built again, for I, the LORD, have spoken it, declares 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 make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.THE KEY
Hebrew’s word for God’s speech belongs to a word-family that also means “matter” or “thing,” joining the decree to the city’s bare, material fate.
THE MEANING
You meet a judgment that leaves no promise of rebuilding: the city is made bare as rock and reduced to a surface for spreading nets. “Built no more” closes its future as a constructed place, and the LORD’s spoken word is presented as the ground of that finality.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every ruined human work can be restored through enough effort; here, the spoken judgment names a city that will be built no more.
THE ROOT
דִּבַּרְתִּי
dibarti
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; the related noun davar can mean a word, matter, or thing.
The verse closes with “I have spoken it,” using the root דבר. Its related noun can name both an utterance and a matter or thing, drawing the declared judgment close to the city’s concrete condition.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shows the root’s reach from utterance to the matter at hand; here, the spoken decree concerns the city’s material fate.
dibber: He spoke; he declared.
דִּבֵּר
This is the speaking form behind the verse’s “I have spoken it,” marking the ending as declared rather than conjectured.
תִּבָּנֶה
tibbaneh
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or establish; the root is also associated with building up a household.
“Built no more” uses the root בנה, which also stands behind binyan, a building or structure, and is traditionally linked with ben, son. That association lets the word carry an echo of household continuity, while the verse explicitly closes the city’s future as a built place.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: Building; structure.
בִּנְיָן
This noun makes the city’s physical construction audible within the root; the verse declares that construction will not resume.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
Traditionally linked with banah through the idea of building up a household, ben echoes generational continuation beside the verse’s declaration that the city will not be rebuilt.
THE PATTERN
Judgment can reduce a built city to exposed remains and close the future of its construction and habitation.
They will ruin the walls of Tyre and tear down her towers. I will scrape her dust from her and set her as a bare rock.And their strength will become plunder, and their houses a ruin. They will build houses but not settle in them, and they will plant vineyards but not drink their wine.Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here is let go upon another stone that is not loosened.THE THREAD
It will be a spreading ground for nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, declares the Lord GOD, and it will be plunder for the nations.Verse 5 repeats the same Hebrew “I have spoken” (דִּבַּרְתִּי, dibarti) and the image of nets spread over the ruined place. It shows the decree taking visible form: a place for nets and spoil among the nations.
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