What Does Ezekiel 3:16 Mean?
And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
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
And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,THE KEY
The word is not merely what arrives after silence; it is the event that turns silence into address.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you at the edge of a completed stretch: the word reaches you as a living address. Hebrew *davar* can mean both “word” and “matter,” so what arrives is not only information but a reality entering your present. The movement is from waiting to being addressed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a quiet stretch means you have been abandoned or that nothing is happening.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר־
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the noun *davar* also means a word, matter, or thing.
Hebrew *davar* can name both a word and a matter, joining speech with what is spoken about. The word that reaches you is not just sound or information; it is speech arriving as an event.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: to speak, say, or declare
דִּבֵּר
The verb grows from the same root, keeping the word connected to the act of speaking.
devarim: words, matters, or things
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves the link between what is said and what is at stake.
THE PATTERN
God’s word reaches into the present as an active force that accomplishes, exposes, or establishes what it addresses.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word, *davar*, for the word that goes out and accomplishes its work. Ezekiel shows that word arriving; Isaiah reveals that what reaches you carries action with it.
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