What Does Ezekiel 26:3 Mean?
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Here I am against you, Tyre. I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.
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
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.THE KEY
The same verb makes both the nations and the sea’s waves rise, turning the attack into a tide of surges.
THE MEANING
Here, opposition gathers like water: many nations rise against Tyre with the pressure of wave after wave. The verse keeps that force concrete, the LORD GOD says he is against the city and causes the surge to rise.
THE ROOT
וְהַעֲלֵיתִי
wəhaʿəlēti kəhaʿalot
GROWS FROM
עלה
Rise or ascend; in the causative form, cause to rise or bring up.
“bring up ... brings up” in this verse is wəhaʿəlēti kəhaʿalot. The verse repeats the causative form of עָלָה (ʿālāh, “rise”): the LORD raises the nations, and the sea raises its waves. The same seed verb makes political force and sea motion one recurring surge.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Go up, rise, ascend.
עָלָה
The root names the upward movement shared by the nations and the waves.
ʿōlāh: Ascending offering, burnt offering.
עֹלָה
This noun carries the root’s sense of rising into another context: what rises from the offering gives it its name.
לְגַלָּיו
ləgallāw
GROWS FROM
גלל
Roll, roll along, or roll away.
“waves” in this verse is ləgallāw. גַּל (gal, “wave” or “heap”) is linked with גלל (galal, “roll”): the image is rolling heaps, not still water. That motion mirrors the rising verb used for both the nations and the sea’s action.
ALSO GROWS
gal: Wave, billow, heap.
גַּל
The word for the sea’s waves carries the image of a rolling heap pressing forward.
gilgal: Wheel, rolling thing.
גִּלְגָּל
This related word preserves the root’s rolling motion in a different form.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures collective human forces as water surging against a city, wave after wave.
Woe to the roaring of many peoples, who roar like the roar of seas; and to the crashing of nations, who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!And he says to me, The waters that you perceived, where the harlot sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.THE THREAD
The sea has come up over Babylon. She is covered with the roar of her waves.Both verses use עלה (ʿalah, “rise”) for the sea coming up, and גַּל (gal, “wave”) for its waves. Ezekiel’s many nations and Jeremiah’s sea covering Babylon share the same rising, wave-shaped pressure.
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