What Does Ezekiel 29:21 Mean?
In that day I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to sprout, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in their midst, and they shall perceive that I am the LORD.
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
In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.THE KEY
Israel’s strength does not arrive as a finished emblem: God makes its horn grow and opens a mouth among the people.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in the pattern of restoration: God makes strength emerge and gives speech an opening among the people. As this growth becomes visible and speakable, they recognize the LORD. Their knowing follows what has taken shape before them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
When a people’s strength and voice seem absent, they cannot return.
THE ROOT
אַצְמִיחַ
atsmiach
GROWS FROM
צמח
To sprout, grow, or put forth vegetation.
The Hebrew verb means “I will cause to sprout.” It turns Israel’s strength from a static emblem into living growth, newly emerging in view.
ALSO GROWS
tsemach: Shoot, growth; in prophetic usage, “the Branch.”
צֶמַח
The same root can name new growth, giving Israel’s strength the texture of something emerging.
matzmiach: Causing to sprout or grow.
מַצְמִיחַ
This causative form makes the agency clear: the growth is made to happen.
פִּתְחוֹן
pithchon
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open.
“opening of the mouth” in this verse is pithchon. Pithchon, “opening,” comes from the verb for opening. Joined to “mouth,” it pictures speech gaining passage into the space among the people.
ALSO GROWS
petach: Opening, doorway, entrance.
פֶּתַח
The shared root connects an opened mouth with an opening through which something can pass.
patuach: Open.
פָּתוּחַ
The verse’s opening is an act of making something accessible, not simply naming a mouth.
קֶרֶן
qeren
GROWS FROM
קרן
Horn; a projecting point, and by extension a ray or beam.
The horn is a projection and a common image of strength. The related verb qāran means to send out rays; paired with “sprout,” the image is strength beginning to project outward.
ALSO GROWS
qeren: Horn; also a symbol of strength.
קֶרֶן
Israel’s strength is pictured as something raised and projecting, now made to grow.
qāran: To emit rays or shine.
קָרַן
The shared consonants retain the image of something projecting outward, fitting the horn’s visible emergence.
THE PATTERN
God makes restoration recognizable as strength grows and speech carries its witness into the open.
There I will cause the horn of David to sprout; I have set in order a lamp for my anointed one.He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.As he spoke through the mouth of his set-apart prophets, who have been since the ages began,THE THREAD
There I will cause the horn of David to sprout; I have set in order a lamp for my anointed one.Both verses join the same Hebrew word for “horn” with the same root for “sprout.” The image makes strength something God brings into growth, rather than a finished emblem handed over all at once.
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