What Does Ezekiel 26:15 Mean?
Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre, Shall not the coastlands quake at the sound of your fall, when the pierced groan, when slaughter multiplies in your midst?
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
Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?THE KEY
A city’s collapse reaches distant shores as the sound of its wounded, not as an abstraction.
THE MEANING
When a center of power falls, its impact reaches people far beyond its walls; even distant shores tremble at the sound. The cries of the wounded are woven into that sound, so the collapse is heard through the bodies it leaves pierced.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that distance keeps people untouched by a city’s violence breaks here: the far shores shake when its fall and the wounded cries become audible.
THE ROOT
מַפַּלְתֵּךְ
mappaltēkh
GROWS FROM
נפל
n-p-l
to fall, be cast down
“fall” in this verse is mappaltēkh. The verse uses a word for downfall, then describes distant shores trembling at its sound. The root ties the collapse to its reach: what falls at the center sends a disturbance outward.
ALSO GROWS
nāphal: to fall, come down
נָפַל
The verb names the action beneath the noun for downfall in this verse.
mappālāh: downfall, collapse
מַפָּלָה
This noun shows the same root naming a fall as an event that can shake what lies beyond it.
חָלָל
ḥālāl
GROWS FROM
חלל
ḥ-l-l
to pierce or wound; the same consonantal root also carries the sense of profaning
The wounded are named with a word for one who has been pierced or slain. Its overlap with the language of profaning brings bodily violation and desecration into the same word-family.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālāl: a pierced, slain, or wounded person
חָלָל
This is the word used for the wounded whose cries accompany the fall.
ḥālal: to pierce, wound, or profane
חָלַל
The shared root links the bodily breach of violence with the violation of what is held sacred.
יִרְגָּזוּן
yirgāzūn
GROWS FROM
רגז
r-g-z
to quake, tremble, or be agitated
“quake” in this verse is yirgāzūn. The distant isles do not merely hear the news; they tremble. The Hebrew root also carries agitation, so the fall’s sound becomes an inward disturbance across the water.
ALSO GROWS
rāgaz: to tremble, quake, or be agitated
רָגַז
This verb names the response of the distant isles in the verse.
rōgez: agitation or trouble
רֹגֶז
The related noun shows that trembling can name a wider disturbance, not only bodily motion.
THE PATTERN
The collapse of a violent center reverberates beyond its own borders.
At the sound of the outcry of your helmsmen, the pastures quake.Babylon has suddenly fallen and shattered. Howl for her; take balm for her wound, perhaps she will be healed.For in one hour such great wealth has been emptied. And every steersman, and every one who sails to a place, and sailors, and as many as work the sea, stood far off. And they cried out when they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like this great city! And they throw dust on their heads, and cry out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships on the sea grew rich by her costliness! For in one hour she has been emptied.THE THREAD
Your wealth, your rows of wares, your trade, your sailors, your helmsmen, your caulkers, the traders of your trade, all your men of battle, and all your assembly in your midst, shall fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your fall.Ezekiel 26:15 names the city’s downfall with a form of נפל (nāphal, to fall); here the same root says its people, wealth, and trade “shall fall” into the sea. The repeated root makes the collapse concrete: the city’s whole world goes down, while the previous verse shows its sound traveling outward.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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