What Does Ezekiel 47:6 Mean?
He said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me back to the lip of the river.
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 he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.THE KEY
Seeing the river does not move the seer past it; the Hebrew brings him back to the river’s own lip.
THE MEANING
The question meets you now: have you seen the flow? What you see brings you back to its edge, where its movement remains in view. The return is part of the encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that seeing something true means you have passed beyond needing to return to it. The seer is brought back to the river’s edge.
THE ROOT
וַיְשִׁבֵנִי
wayeshivēni
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
To turn back or return; in this form, to bring someone back.
“brought me back” in this verse is wayeshivēni. The action after seeing is not simply forward travel: the seer is actively brought back. This root also expresses restoration, so return can be the movement by which what has wandered is restored.
ALSO GROWS
hēshīv: Bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shares the verse’s root: the guide brings the seer back.
yeshovev: Restore, bring back
יְשׁוֹבֵב
Psalm 23:3 uses this form for what the shepherd does for the living soul, linking return with restoration.
שְׂפַת
sefat
GROWS FROM
שָׂפָה
Lip; also an edge or boundary, and language.
English makes the brink a piece of landscape; Hebrew calls it the river’s lip, using the same word that can mean language. The seer is returned to an edge named with a word of expression.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip, edge
שָׂפָה
Here the riverbank is described as its lip.
safah: Language, speech
שָׂפָה
The same Hebrew word names the lip that speaks and the river’s boundary.
THE PATTERN
Restoration is a return to the source of life, from which life flows outward.
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.Ezekiel’s guide brings the seer back to the river; Psalm 23:3 uses the same root, שׁוּב (shuv, return), in restoreth. The root connects being brought back with restoration.
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