What Does Ezekiel 30:15 Mean?
And I will pour out my heat upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the roar of No.
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 I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “cut off” is also used for “cutting” a covenant, so the verse’s severance carries the same decisiveness as a binding commitment.
THE MEANING
You meet this as a present word of judgment: fury falls on Sin, named as Egypt’s stronghold, and the multitude of No is cut off. The verse names both the fortified center and the people gathered around it; neither strength nor numbers are presented as a shield. Sin and No are place names here, not the ideas of missing or negation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a stronghold and the multitude gathered under it make a power untouchable.
THE ROOT
וְהִכְרַתִּי
ve-hikh-ratti
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
Cut, sever, cut off.
“cut off” in this verse is ve-hikh-ratti. The verb describes severance here, yet the same root appears in the Hebrew expression “cut a covenant.” The context determines whether the cutting binds or separates, giving the act in this verse a force beyond simple diminishment.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the verb used for cutting off the multitude of No.
karat berit: Cut a covenant; make or establish a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb that severs in this verse also names the decisive act of making a covenant.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
מ־צ־ר
m-ts-r
A narrow strait or constricted passage.
The name carries the image of narrowing in a twofold form. The verse locates Egypt’s stronghold within that constriction, then shows that even this strength is exposed to judgment.
ALSO GROWS
metsar: A narrow place, strait, or distress.
מֵצַר
This related form gives the name’s image of constriction a concrete shape.
Mitsrayim: Egypt; read here as the two narrows, with -ַיִם as the dual ending.
מִצְרַיִם
The verse places a stronghold inside the very name that carries the narrowing image.
מָעוֹז
ma'oz
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿazaz
Be strong, mighty, or powerful.
“stronghold of Egypt” in this verse is ma'oz. The Hebrew word translated “strength” also means a stronghold or refuge. Sin is presented as Egypt’s fortified refuge, making the verse’s judgment reach the place treated as its power.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength or might.
עֹז
This related form makes the power named in “the strength of Egypt” explicit.
ma'oz: Stronghold, fortress, or refuge.
מָעוֹז
This is the word used here: Egypt’s strength is pictured as a fortified place.
THE PATTERN
Neither a fortified seat of power nor a gathered multitude makes human strength immune to judgment.
No king is delivered by the multitude of an army; a mighty one is not snatched free by much strength.For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one who swells and is high, and upon every one who is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.Therefore her blows shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and hunger; and she shall be burned down with fire, for strong is the LORD God who judges her.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.The Hebrew verb translated “cut off” here is the same root used in “made a covenant” in Genesis. In one verse the cutting severs a multitude; in the other it names the decisive act of covenant-making.
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