What Does Ezekiel 26:8 Mean?
With the sword he will kill your daughters in the field, and he will make a siege against you, and pour out a ramp against you, and lift a shield against you.
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
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee.THE KEY
The siege is engineered access: after the sword reaches those beyond the walls, a raised way brings the assault against the city itself.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of violence in two layers: daughters are killed in the field, and siegeworks are built against the city. A fort, ramp, and shield turn the attack into an organized approach toward the people within.
THE ROOT
סֹלְלָה
solelah
GROWS FROM
ס־ל־ל
To raise or heap up; to cast up a way.
English “mount” makes this sound like terrain. The Hebrew word belongs to ס־ל־ל (s-l-l; salal), meaning “to raise or heap up,” the same root behind a raised highway. The siege ramp is a way made upward for force to reach a defended place; the root holds the mound and the road together as structures of access.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: Highway, raised road.
מְסִלָּה
In Isaiah 62:10, this is the raised way prepared for people to pass through, showing the same root’s other use.
salal: To raise, heap up, or cast up a way.
סָלַל
This verb names the action that forms both the siege ramp here and the highway in Isaiah 62:10.
THE PATTERN
A prepared approach shapes what can reach a place: it can carry force toward a city or open a path for people.
With the sword he will kill your daughters in the field, and he will make a siege against you, and pour out a ramp against you, and lift a shield against you.Go through, go through the gates; clear the way for the people; heap up, heap up the highway; gather out the stones; lift a banner for the people.And make straight tracks for your feet, so that what limps may not be turned aside, but rather be healed.THE THREAD
Go through, go through the gates; clear the way for the people; heap up, heap up the highway; gather out the stones; lift a banner for the people.The “highway” here and the “mount” in Ezekiel share the root ס־ל־ל (s-l-l; salal), meaning “to raise or heap up.” One raised way opens passage for people; the other brings an army against a city, revealing how the same made path can serve passage or attack.
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