What Does Ezekiel 30:3 Mean?

For the day is drawing near, and the day of the LORD is drawing near, a day of cloud; it shall be the time of the nations.

Ezekiel 30:3 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

THE KEY

The repeated “near” comes from a root of approach, so the day is not just close on a calendar, it is moving toward encounter.

THE MEANING

The day of the LORD is near: a clouded day, and the appointed time of the nations. The verse places the reader before an approaching reckoning, with the nations within its scope and no clear sight of what comes next.

THE ROOT

קָרוֹב

qarov

GROWS FROM

קרב

q-r-b

To approach, draw near, or bring close.

“is drawing near” in this verse is qarov. English “near” can sound like a static measure of distance. The Hebrew word comes from a root of movement toward encounter: the day approaches, as something brought near does, and as opposing sides come into contact in battle.

ALSO GROWS

qarav: To approach or draw near.

קָרַב

The same root makes “near” a movement toward the day, not only a point on a timeline.

qorbān: An offering brought near.

קָרְבָּן

The day’s nearness echoes the root’s sense of something being brought into proximity.

qerav: Battle or combat.

קְרָב

This branch carries approach into confrontation, fitting the verse’s clouded day of reckoning.

THE PATTERN

The day of reckoning is portrayed as an approaching threshold that gathers nations into its scope.

Blow the ram's horn in Zion, and shout on my set-apart mountain. Let all the settlers of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is drawing near.

Joel 2:1 · SDVThe day of the LORD is announced as approaching, turning its nearness into an alarm heard throughout the land.

Drawing near is the great day of the LORD, near and hastening greatly. The sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, and the strong man shrieks there.

Zephaniah 1:14 · SDVThe repeated nearness and haste make the approaching day an imminent encounter.

Flourishing is the one who reads aloud, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and guard what is written in it, for the season is at hand.

Revelation 1:3 · SDVThe prophetic time is described as at hand, placing the reader inside the threshold the prophecy announces.

THE THREAD

Drawing near is the great day of the LORD, near and hastening greatly. The sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, and the strong man shrieks there.

Zephaniah 1:14 · SDV

The Hebrew word for “near” in both verses comes from ⁨קרב⁩ (q-r-b), the root of approaching and drawing close. Zephaniah intensifies that movement: the day is near, near again, and hastening.

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