What Does Ezekiel 46:10 Mean?
And the lifted one in the midst of them goes in when they go in, and goes forth when they go forth.
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
And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.THE KEY
The prince’s elevated title does not place him outside the people: their entrances and departures are his too.
THE MEANING
The one who holds the highest place is among the people, sharing their passage in and out. His place is bound to theirs as they enter and leave.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that authority must stand apart from the people it leads.
THE ROOT
נָשִׂיא
nāśîʾ
GROWS FROM
נ-שׂ-א
n-ś-ʾ
Lift, carry, bear.
“the lifted one” in this verse is nāśîʾ. The word for prince comes from a word-family of lifting and carrying. Here the one who is elevated remains “in their midst,” and his movements match theirs: rank does not remove him from shared passage.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb shows the root’s range beneath the title: elevation and carrying belong to the same word-family.
maśśāʾ: A burden or load; something borne.
מַשָּׂא
It shows the same root extending from the lifted one to what is carried, a connection made concrete in Numbers 11:17.
THE PATTERN
Presence that belongs with a people accompanies them through their entrances and departures.
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.Therefore of these men who have walked with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,I am the door. Through me, if anyone enters, he shall be delivered, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.THE THREAD
"I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw off some of the breath upon you and set it upon them; and they will lift the load of the people with you, so that you do not lift it alone."The Hebrew root נ-שׂ-א (n-ś-ʾ), meaning “lift, carry, bear,” underlies both “prince” in Ezekiel and “bear the burden” here. Numbers makes the carrying explicit: leadership is shared with the people, which opens Ezekiel’s prince among them in a new light.
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