What Does Ezekiel 29:20 Mean?
I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor that he served against it, because they made for me, says 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
I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.THE KEY
The conqueror is paid with the very land his labor was spent against, because the verse says that labor was done for God.
THE MEANING
The line holds conquest and reward together: Egypt is given as payment for labor spent against it. Work that appears aimed at a place is reckoned here as work for God, while the land itself becomes the wage. The sentence leaves both the violence and the unsettling claim of divine use in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an actor’s chosen target is the full meaning of their work: here, labor against Egypt is still called work “for me.”
THE ROOT
פְּעֻלָּתוֹ
peʿullato
GROWS FROM
פעל
To do, make, or work; פְּעֻלָּתוֹ means “his work” or “his labor.”
The Hebrew word for labor comes from a root of doing or working, and the noun can also carry the sense of recompense. The next verse names the unpaid work; this verse gives Egypt as its wage, linking the labor to what is received for it.
ALSO GROWS
poʿal: Work, deed, or action.
פֹּעַל
It keeps the emphasis on what is done, which matters when the verse says the labor was “for me.”
poʿel: Worker or one who does something.
פֹּעֵל
The worker and the work share the same root, joining the one who labors to the deed whose reward is Egypt.
עָבַד
ʿāvad
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve; עָבַד means “he worked” or “he served.”
“served” in this verse is ʿāvad. The Hebrew verb carries both labor and service, so the verse holds the act and its direction in tension: he serves against Egypt, yet the work is reckoned as being for God. The same root appears in the previous verse’s repeated language of service and labor.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
The noun names someone through the service or labor they perform, echoing the verse’s focus on work claimed by another.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This is the noun used in the preceding verse for the costly service that receives no wages until Egypt is given.
עָשׂוּ
ʿāśû
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do or make; עָשׂוּ means “they did” or “they made.”
“made” in this verse is ʿāśû. Where “served” names labor with a sense of service, “wrought” is simply “they did.” The verse puts the deed before God as its explanation: they did this work “for me,” though its visible direction was against Egypt.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: A deed, act, or work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
It names what has been done, bringing attention to the deed whose purpose the verse assigns.
ʿoseh: One who does or makes; a doer or maker.
עֹשֵׂה
It is the agent formed from the same root as “they did,” linking the workers to the act attributed to God’s purpose.
THE PATTERN
A worker’s apparent target does not settle the full meaning of the work, even as its cost and consequences remain visible.
Woe, Assyria, the rod of the burning of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my seething.As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.THE THREAD
Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great labor against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled. Yet neither he nor his army had wages from Tyre, for the labor that he served against it.The Hebrew root עבד (ʿāvad, work or serve) appears in both verses: the army serves a great service, and its labor is named again as service for which it has no wages. Verse 20 answers that absence with Egypt, making the reward follow the work.
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