What Does Ezekiel 46:17 Mean?
But if he gives a gift of his holding to one of his servants, it is his until the year of release, and after that it returns to the lifted one; but his holding stays with his sons.
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
But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons’ for them.THE KEY
A gift can place someone inside another’s estate for a season without making that estate his inheritance.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two kinds of belonging side by side: a servant receives a gift from the prince’s estate for a bounded term, while the sons remain its inheritors. The year of liberty marks the boundary at which what was granted returns to the prince. The verse distinguishes what is given for a term from what is carried forward through a line of inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that possession and permanence are the same: receiving the grant makes it his for a term, but does not make it his inheritance.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָתוֹ
nachalato
GROWS FROM
נחל
nachal
To inherit or take possession; as a noun, an estate or portion passed on as a continuing possession.
“holding” in this verse is nachalato. The same word נַחֲלָה (nachalah, inheritance) appears first as the prince’s estate and again as what belongs to his sons. Its root also forms נָחַל (nachal, inherit), linking the estate to the act of receiving and carrying it forward.
ALSO GROWS
nachal: To inherit or receive as a possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as an ongoing transfer, while the verse sets that enduring line beside a servant’s time-limited grant.
hinchil: To cause someone to inherit; to pass on as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This form makes explicit the transfer from one generation or holder to another that the sons’ inheritance preserves.
nachalah: An inheritance, estate, or allotted portion.
נַחֲלָה
The repeated noun makes the contrast: the prince’s estate temporarily supplies the gift, but his sons receive the inheritance.
דְּרוֹר
deror
GROWS FROM
דרר
darar
To move freely or flow freely; the related noun denotes release or liberty.
“release” in this verse is deror. The word דְּרוֹר (deror, liberty) carries the sense of free movement. Here, liberty is a named boundary in time: when it arrives, the servant’s grant returns to the prince.
ALSO GROWS
darar: To move swiftly or flow freely.
דָּרַר
This root sense gives liberty a concrete feel of movement released from restraint.
deror: Liberty or release.
דְּרוֹר
This is the word used for the year that ends the servant’s possession and returns the estate to its source.
מַתָּנָה
mattanah
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The verb יִתֵּן (yitten, he gives) and the noun מַתָּנָה (mattanah, gift) grow from the same root. The gift is named by the act that places it in the servant’s hands, while the verse gives that placement a defined term.
ALSO GROWS
yitten: He gives or places.
יִתֵּן
This is the act that grants the servant possession of part of the prince’s estate.
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root’s sense of placing clarifies that the gift is a real grant, even though its duration is limited.
THE PATTERN
A temporary grant can end at a designated release while inheritance remains with its line of belonging.
And you shall set apart the fiftieth year, and proclaim a free flowing through all the land to all who settle in it. It shall be a ram's horn year for you, and you shall turn back each to his holding, and each to his family you shall turn back.So the holding of the children of Israel shall not turn from staff to staff, for every one of the children of Israel shall cling to the holding of the staff of his fathers.And for this reason he is the one who stands in the middle of a new covenant, so that, with a death having come for the release from the crossings over under the first covenant, those who are called might take hold of the promise of the inheritance of the ages.THE THREAD
And you shall set apart the fiftieth year, and proclaim a free flowing through all the land to all who settle in it. It shall be a ram's horn year for you, and you shall turn back each to his holding, and each to his family you shall turn back.The Hebrew דְּרוֹר (deror, liberty) appears in both verses. Leviticus makes the release year’s effect visible: people return to their possessions and families, just as Ezekiel’s granted estate returns to the prince.
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