What Does Ezekiel 29:19 Mean?
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD. Look, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall carry away her multitude, and plunder her spoil, and plunder her prey, and it shall be wages for his army.
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 will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.THE KEY
The verse turns Egypt itself into an army’s pay, making conquest read as a transaction.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes an exchange that remains legible now: a ruler assigns another land and its wealth as payment for an army’s labor. Calling the seizure wages makes conquest sound like settled accounts, while the people and territory remain inside the word “spoil.”
THE ROOT
שְׂכַר
sakhar
GROWS FROM
שכר
To hire or pay; wages, compensation, or reward.
English separates “wages” from “hire” and “reward”; Hebrew holds them in שכר (sakhar, compensation). Here, an invaded land functions as payment, exposing conquest as a transaction that places people and territory on the pay side of the ledger.
ALSO GROWS
sakhar: To hire, pay, or earn wages.
שָׂכַר
The action and its payment share the same root, so the verse’s wages name a labor relation: Egypt’s captured value settles an army’s service.
sakhir: A hired worker; one hired for wages.
שָׂכִיר
This branch names the wage-earner and makes the army’s relation to Egypt read as paid service, with territory and spoil as its compensation.
THE PATTERN
A reward is defined by what it answers to, whether labor, promise, or life.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Look, children are the LORD's portion; and the fruit of the womb is a wage.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.THE THREAD
Look, children are the LORD's portion; and the fruit of the womb is a wage.The verse’s “wages” and the psalm’s “reward” come from Hebrew שכר (sakhar, recompense). In Ezekiel, the word names an army’s return in seized land; in the psalm, it names the fruit of life.
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