What Does Ezekiel 47:16 Mean?

Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.

Ezekiel 47:16 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran.

THE KEY

The KJV’s “border” and “coast” translate the same Hebrew word, tracing one continuous edge through the places this verse names.

THE MEANING

This verse gives you a geography with explicit edges: Sibraim lies between the boundaries of Damascus and Hamath, and Hazar-hatticon lies by Hauran’s boundary. What looks like a list of places becomes a map of how one region meets another.

THE ROOT

גְּבוּל

gevul

GROWS FROM

גבל

g-b-l

To set a boundary or mark an edge.

“border” in this verse is gevul. The verse uses ⁨גְּבוּל⁩ (gevul, boundary) for each edge, including the KJV’s “coast” of Hauran. The repeated word makes the named places part of one continuous line of delineation.

ALSO GROWS

gevul: Border; bounded territory.

גְּבוּל

This noun marks the edges named throughout the verse, even where the KJV varies its wording.

higbil: To set bounds; mark off.

הִגְבִּיל

The verb shows the boundary as something marked out, giving the repeated place names a clear geographic shape.

בֵּין

bein

GROWS FROM

בין

b-y-n

To discern or distinguish.

Sibraim is located in the interval between two distinct borders. The related language of discernment makes that interval legible: the two edges are marked, and the place between them can be named.

ALSO GROWS

bin: To discern; understand.

בִּין

The related verb carries the sense of distinguishing, which clarifies how the verse locates Sibraim between two edges.

binah: Understanding; insight.

בִּינָה

This noun shares the root’s discerning sense: the verse’s precise distinctions make the land’s arrangement understandable.

THE PATTERN

Marked boundaries make a place and its allotted space identifiable.

From Mount Hor you shall draw your border to the entrance of Hamath, and its goings out shall be to Zedad.

Numbers 34:8 · SDVThe border is traced through named places, just as Ezekiel’s verse locates its edges by specific towns and regions.

And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.

Acts 17:26 · SDVThe verse presents habitation as having bounds that give its place a defined extent.

The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.

Psalm 16:6 · SDVThe measured lines mark an inheritance whose extent can be recognized.

THE THREAD

Thus says the Lord LORD. This shall be the border by which you shall take hold of the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions.

Ezekiel 47:13 · SDV

Verse 13 names the border by which the land is inherited; verse 16 fills that boundary out with places. Both use ⁨גְּבוּל⁩ (gevul, boundary), linking the inheritance to the line that gives it shape.

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