What Does Ezekiel 35:14 Mean?
Thus says the Lord GOD; when all the earth rejoices, I will make you an emptiness.
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
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.THE KEY
The whole earth’s rejoicing and one power’s desolation occupy the same moment: public triumph is no shelter from judgment.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s pronouncement holds celebration and devastation in one frame: the world rejoices while the power addressed is laid bare. It shows you that success does not shield a force that celebrates another’s ruin from judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that rejoicing over another’s collapse proves you are safe from judgment.
THE ROOT
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שמם
To be desolate or appalled; to leave devastated.
“an emptiness” in this verse is shemamah. The word translated “desolate” comes from a root that also describes being appalled. It carries the shock of devastation, not simply the absence of people; beside “rejoiceth,” its written opening letters echo the other word, though the two have distinct roots.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To be desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
The same root holds both the ruined condition and the stunned response to it.
shemamah: Desolation; waste.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun names the devastating condition pronounced over the one addressed.
שְׂמֹחַ
səmoaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
To rejoice or be glad.
“rejoices” in this verse is səmoaḥ. The verse sets rejoicing directly beside desolation. Their Hebrew spellings share the written opening letters שמ, but they are separate roots: the echo tightens the contrast without making joy and devastation the same word.
ALSO GROWS
simchah: Joy; gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun gives the rejoicing in the verse a wider sense of shared joy.
sameach: Glad; rejoicing.
שָׂמֵחַ
This form names the glad state behind the verse’s description of the earth rejoicing.
THE PATTERN
Gloating over another’s calamity brings the rejoicer under a matching judgment.
Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker, and he who is glad at calamities does not come away clear.And do not gaze upon the day of your brother, the day he became a foreigner. Do not rejoice over the children of Judah on the day they lost their way. Do not make your mouth large in the day of the narrow place.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.THE THREAD
And do not gaze upon the day of your brother, the day he became a foreigner. Do not rejoice over the children of Judah on the day they lost their way. Do not make your mouth large in the day of the narrow place.Obadiah uses the same Hebrew root שׂמח (samach, rejoice) for “rejoiced.” It names delight in another’s destruction, clarifying the judgment behind Ezekiel’s stark pairing of rejoicing and desolation.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us