What Does Ezekiel 5:11 Mean?
Therefore as I live, says the Lord GOD, Surely, because you have made unclean my set-apart place with all your loathsome things, and with all your recoiling things, therefore I will also diminish you. Neither shall my eye spare, nor will I have pity.
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
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.THE KEY
The verse casts judgment as subtraction: because what is set apart is defiled, the people are diminished.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as an unsoftened sentence of judgment: defiling what is set apart brings diminishment. No sparing or pity interrupts its consequence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is called sacred remains immune from judgment even when it is defiled.
THE ROOT
אֶגְרַע
ʾegraʿ
GROWS FROM
גרע
gāraʿ
Withdraw, reduce, or take away.
The word for judgment is an act of subtraction: something is taken away, not merely weakened. The same root appears in commands not to diminish a word, making the loss in this verse concrete.
ALSO GROWS
tigreʿu: You shall diminish or take away.
תִּגְרְעוּ
Deuteronomy uses this form for subtracting from the words of instruction; here, diminishment falls upon the people.
yigraʿ: He shall diminish or withhold.
יִגְרַע
Exodus uses this form for reducing what is provided, showing how the root names an actual loss.
מִקְדָּשִׁי
miqdāshī
GROWS FROM
קדש
qādash
Set apart, consecrate.
“set-apart place” in this verse is miqdāshī. The sanctuary is named from the root of setting apart: it is what has been designated as distinct. Defiling it means that what is set apart has been filled with what violates that distinction.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This branch names the condition the sanctuary carries: its distinction is part of what has been defiled.
qōdesh: That which is set apart; sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
The sanctuary and sacredness share the same root, linking the place to the quality it bears.
טִמֵּאת
ṭimmēʾt
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭāmēʾ
Be unclean or make unclean.
“made unclean” in this verse is ṭimmēʾt. The root ties defilement to uncleanness, naming a condition that spreads into what it touches. Here that condition reaches what is set apart, and the next word names the loss that follows.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: Unclean.
טָמֵא
The adjective shows the state created by the defiling action.
ṭumʾāh: Uncleanness, impurity.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition associated with the act that defiles the sanctuary.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart offers no immunity when it is made a vessel of defilement.
And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his seed to Molech, to soil my set-apart place, and to pierce my set-apart name.And as for me also, my eye will not hold back, and I will not have pity. I will set their way upon their head.If anyone ruins the temple of God, God will ruin him, for God's temple is set apart, and you are that temple.THE THREAD
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.The same root, גרע (gāraʿ, “diminish”), appears in the warning not to subtract from the words. Here that root names the loss that falls upon the people after the sanctuary is defiled.
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