What Does Ezekiel 47:11 Mean?
But its mire and its gathered pools shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
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 the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.THE KEY
The river’s abundance does not make every place fresh: the marshes remain unhealed and assigned to salt.
THE MEANING
The river brings life through the landscape, yet the marshes remain unhealed and are given to salt. Their condition stays visible within the vision of restoration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that real healing must leave no place unchanged. This verse leaves the unrepaired marsh in view.
THE ROOT
יֵרָפְאוּ
yērāphəʾū
GROWS FROM
רפא
r-p-ʾ
To heal or restore to wholeness.
“shall not be healed” in this verse is yērāphəʾū. This is the root behind healing and the healer, so the verse names a precise exception to the restoration flowing through the landscape. These marshes do not receive that healing; the next phrase gives their continuing condition a place in the vision.
ALSO GROWS
rapha: To heal or restore.
רָפָא
This verb names the healing the marshes do not receive.
refu’ah: Healing or remedy.
רְפוּאָה
The word-family makes the withheld change explicit: the marshes remain outside the healing described around them.
rofe: Healer or physician.
רֹפֵא
The root can name both the act of healing and the one who heals, giving the verse’s refusal its full force.
נִתָּנוּ
nittānū
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The marshes are not merely left behind; the word says they are given to salt. This root can mean placing something somewhere, so their continuing condition is presented as an assigned place in the landscape.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind the marshes being given to salt.
mattanah: A gift or something given.
מַתָּנָה
It carries the same sense of something being given a place or purpose.
netinah: Giving or placement.
נְתִינָה
This form echoes the act of assigning the marshes to salt.
THE PATTERN
Salt keeps a distinct and enduring place within the larger order of life.
And every drawing near of your gift you season with salt; you do not cause the salt of the covenant of your God to cease from your gift. On all your drawing near you bring salt near.Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have wholeness with one another.THE THREAD
And every living soul that swarms, wherever the rivers come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there. They shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.Both verses use the root רפא (rapha, heal). Verse 9 says the river’s waters are healed; verse 11 names the marshes that remain unhealed, making the boundary of that restoration visible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us