What Does Ezekiel 7:3 Mean?
Now the cutting off has come upon you, and I will send the burning of my anger upon you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will set upon you all your sickening things.
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
Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.THE KEY
The verse makes its reckoning concrete: anger is sent forth, and what is given is set upon you according to the way you have walked.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now as a severe declaration: an ending comes upon you, anger is sent forth, and judgment meets you according to your ways. It describes the reckoning as placed upon you in correspondence with your abominations, without softening the threat.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that judgment is unrelated to a person’s way: the verse names the measure as “according to thy ways.”
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי
wəšillaḥtî
GROWS FROM
שָׁלַח
shalach: to send forth, dispatch, or release.
“send” in this verse is wəšillaḥtî. The verb names movement outward: what is sent is released from the sender and directed elsewhere. Here the object is anger, so this same sending forth carries judgment rather than freedom.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: “Sent”; the name of the waters of Siloam.
שִׁילֹחַ
It shares the sending root, showing that shalach can name waters sent forth as well as the anger sent upon you here.
shilluaḥ: A sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the root’s release sense visible; in Ezekiel, what is sent forth is anger.
וְנָתַתִּי
wənātattî
GROWS FROM
נָתַן
natan: to give, set, or place.
“set upon” in this verse is wənātattî. Under “recompense” sits a concrete layer: natan means give, set, or place, making the judgment something placed upon you. The root can also name a gift, so the surrounding words give this act its severe force.
ALSO GROWS
natun: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
It echoes the verse’s image of something set upon you.
mattanah: A gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
It shows that the root names giving itself; here the context makes what is given a reckoning.
אַפִּי
appî
GROWS FROM
אָנַף
anaph: to flare up or be angry; related אַף (af) means nostril and anger or heat.
The word translated “anger” carries the bodily image of the nostril flaring and heat rising. The verse presents that anger as something sent upon you, not as a vague feeling.
ALSO GROWS
af: Nostril; also anger or heat.
אַף
It lets the bodily image remain present beneath the English word “anger.”
anaph: To be angry or flare up.
אָנַף
This verbal form makes the anger an active rising force in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Judgment is presented as corresponding to the way and deeds from which it grows.
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord LORD. Turn, and turn yourselves from all your rebellions; so crookedness shall not be your stumbling block.I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
And the LORD spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.Both verses use שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth): here anger is sent upon you, while Exodus uses the same root in “Let my people go.” The root marks sending outward; what is sent determines whether that movement is release or judgment.
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