What Does Ezekiel 47:23 Mean?
And it shall be that in whatever tribe the sojourner lodges, there you shall give him his inheritance, says the Lord LORD.
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 it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.THE KEY
The verse turns residence into inheritance: the stranger receives a share in the very tribe where he lives.
THE MEANING
The resident stranger receives an inheritance within the tribe where he lives. His presence is not left at the edge of the land’s belonging; a share is assigned to him there. The LORD GOD declares this allocation as a settled truth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that inheritance belongs only to those born into a tribe dissolves here: the stranger who lives among the people receives a share within that tribe.
THE ROOT
גֵּר
gēr
GROWS FROM
גּוּר
g-w-r
To reside or sojourn as an outsider among a people.
“sojourner” in this verse is gēr. The verse uses the related words gēr, “resident stranger,” and gār, “sojourns.” The person marked as an outsider is already living within a tribe, and that place of residence becomes the location of his inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
gēr: A resident stranger or sojourner.
גֵּר
This is the person whose presence among the tribe is tied to receiving a share there.
gūr: To reside as a stranger or sojourn among a people.
גּוּר
This verb describes the stranger’s actual place of residence, which the verse uses to locate his inheritance.
נַחֲלָתוֹ
naḥălātô
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or possess a share; as a noun, an allotted possession or inheritance.
The inheritance is a concrete share in the land, not merely permission to remain there. The verse ties that share to the tribe where the stranger resides, giving his presence a place within the land’s distribution.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or possess a share.
נָחַל
The verbal root shows inheritance as receiving a portion, the act granted to the resident stranger here.
naḥălāh: An inheritance or allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This is the word for the share the stranger receives within the tribe where he lives.
תִּתְּנוּ
tittenū from nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The inheritance does not remain an abstract promise: the people are to give it to the stranger in the place where he resides. The root’s sense of setting or placing makes the share an actual portion within the tribe.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root of “give” in the verse, making the stranger’s share an explicit act of allocation.
mattān: A gift or what is given.
מַתָּן
This related noun echoes the verse’s focus on a share actively given to the resident stranger.
THE PATTERN
Belonging becomes concrete when the stranger receives a place and share among the people.
One instruction will be for the native of the land, and for the sojourner who sojourns among you.But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the set-apart ones, and of the household of God.THE THREAD
But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.Both verses use the ger, “resident stranger,” from the root gūr, “to reside as a stranger.” Ezekiel gives this resident a share in the tribe; Leviticus names him as one born among the people.
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