What Does Ezekiel 39:10 Mean?
They shall take no wood from the field, nor cut any from the forests, for they shall burn the weapons with fire. And they shall plunder those who plundered them, and strip those who stripped them, says the Lord GOD.
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
So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.THE KEY
The plunderer becomes the spoil, and the attackers’ weapons supply the fire without a tree being cut.
THE MEANING
Those who were stripped now strip their attackers, and those who were robbed now plunder their robbers. The weapons become fuel, so no wood needs to be gathered from field or forest. The verse depicts harm returning through the same actions by which it was inflicted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a plunderer can keep every gain untouched meets a reversal here: the plunderer is plundered.
THE ROOT
וְשָׁלְלוּ
veshalelu
GROWS FROM
שלל
sh-l-l
To strip away or take as spoil.
The verb and the name for the people being plundered share the same root: they plunder their plunderers. English preserves the repetition, but the Hebrew makes the action and its target visibly grow from one seed.
ALSO GROWS
shalal: Spoil, booty
שָׁלָל
The plunder taken becomes the material at the heart of the reversal.
sholel: One who plunders
שֹׁלֵל
The former plunderer is named with the same root as the act now turned against them.
וּבָזְזוּ
uvazzu
GROWS FROM
בזז
b-z-z
To plunder or seize as spoil.
“strip” in this verse is uvazzu. The second pair repeats the same structure: they plunder those who plundered them. Two different roots name the return of the taking, making the reversal both doubled and concrete.
ALSO GROWS
baz: Spoil, plunder
בַּז
The noun names what is seized in the action described here.
bozez: One who plunders
בֹּזֵז
This branch names the plunderer, now placed on the receiving end of the same action.
THE PATTERN
The one who inflicts plunder or harm faces that same action returned upon them.
Woe to you who ravage, though you were not ravaged. You who betray, though none betrayed you. When you run out of ravaging, you will be ravaged. When you run out of betraying, they will betray you.For near is the day of the LORD upon all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you. Your repayment turns back upon your own head.If anyone is bound for captivity, into it he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, he must be killed with the sword. Here is the bearing up under, and the trust of the set-apart ones.THE THREAD
Woe to you who ravage, though you were not ravaged. You who betray, though none betrayed you. When you run out of ravaging, you will be ravaged. When you run out of betraying, they will betray you.Isaiah makes explicit the reversal Ezekiel shows: the one who plunders is eventually plundered. Ezekiel’s repeated roots make that return tangible, as the action is turned directly upon the plunderers.
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