What Does Ezekiel 31:11 Mean?
Therefore I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.
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 therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.THE KEY
Here, being “delivered” is a transfer into another’s hand, so the judgment begins with a change of custody and ends in expulsion.
THE MEANING
Power does not secure its own place: the mighty one is given into another’s hand, and that hand deals with him according to his wickedness. The speaker’s final words hold the expulsion in the first person, “I have driven him out”, so the removal itself belongs to the judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that might guarantees permanence: the one called mighty can still be handed over and expelled.
THE ROOT
נְתַתִּיו
netattiv
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“given him” in this verse is netattiv. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of giving or placing: the figure is set within another’s hand. Judgment is pictured as transferred power, not only as a verdict.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind the transfer into another’s hand.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root of giving; here, that act of giving places the mighty one under another’s power.
גֵּרַשְׁתִּיהוּ
gerashtihu
GROWS FROM
גרש
g-r-sh
To drive or cast out.
“driven him out” in this verse is gerashtihu. Garash names forceful removal from a place or bond. Here, the one transferred into another’s hand is also expelled from his place.
ALSO GROWS
vayegaresh: And he drove out.
וַיְגָרֶשׁ
The same verb describes expulsion from the garden in Genesis 3:24.
gerushah: A woman put away or divorced.
גְּרוּשָׁה
This form shows the root also naming removal from a bond, alongside expulsion from a place.
כְּרִשְׁעוֹ
kerish'o
GROWS FROM
רשע
r-sh-ʿ
To be guilty or act wickedly; wickedness or guilt.
The phrase makes the treatment correspond to the subject’s own wickedness. The root names both the wicked person and the condition of guilt tied to the judgment.
ALSO GROWS
rasha: A wicked or guilty person.
רָשָׁע
The person and the wrongdoing belong to the same root family.
resha: Wickedness or guilt.
רֶשַׁע
This noun echoes the verse’s wording and names the wrongdoing according to which he is dealt with.
THE PATTERN
A high position is not self-secured: authority can shift, and the mighty can be brought low.
For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.Your heart was lifted up because of your shining, and you have ruined your wisdom because of your brightness; I will throw you to the earth, and I will set you before kings, so that they may see you.THE THREAD
And I will make firm the arms of the king of Babylon, and set my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groaning of a pierced man.The same Hebrew root, נתן (natan, “give” or “place”), underlies “put” here and “delivered” in Ezekiel 31:11. Both verses picture authority being placed into a hand, making that hand an instrument of judgment.
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