What Does Ezekiel 36:37 Mean?
Thus says the Lord GOD, I will still be sought by the house of Israel to do this for them. I will increase them with people like a flock.
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; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.THE KEY
The promise includes a God who is willing to be sought as the increase is brought forth.
THE MEANING
God’s intention is not sealed off from your voice: the promised restoration includes your seeking, and God remains the one who brings it about. The increase is pictured as a human flock, lives gathered into abundance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that because God has promised something, your asking no longer matters; the promise itself includes God being sought.
THE ROOT
אִדָּרֵשׁ
’iddārēš
GROWS FROM
דָּרַשׁ
dāraš
To seek, inquire, consult, or pursue.
“sought” in this verse is ’iddārēš. Beneath “be enquired of” is a verb that also means to seek or consult; the clause carries the sense of God becoming the one Israel seeks. A branch of the same root names interpretive study, preserving the image of searching until meaning opens.
ALSO GROWS
derishah: Inquiry, seeking, or request.
דְּרִישָׁה
This branch carries the same movement as the verse: seeking God about what God promises to do.
midrash: Interpretive exposition or study.
מִדְרָשׁ
Its shared root frames study as a search that draws out meaning, echoing a promise entered through inquiry.
אֲרַבֶּה
’ărabbêh
GROWS FROM
רָבָה
rāḇâ
To become many, multiply, or increase.
The verb for increase grows from a root of becoming many. Here the promised abundance takes the shape of a flock of people: growth appears as lives gathered together.
ALSO GROWS
rav: Many, much, or great.
רַב
This branch names the abundance toward which the verse’s promise of increase points.
rov: Multitude or abundance.
רֹב
The related noun makes the outcome concrete: the increase becomes a gathered multitude.
THE PATTERN
God’s promised work welcomes human seeking, while God remains the one who brings the promise to pass.
I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.Seek the LORD while he may be found, call out to him while he is near.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.THE THREAD
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call out to him while he is near.Ezekiel’s “be enquired of” and Isaiah’s “Seek” come from דָּרַשׁ (dāraš, to seek or inquire), so the same movement underlies both verses. Isaiah makes Ezekiel’s promise tangible now: seeking meets a God who is near and can be found.
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