What Does Ezekiel 8:14 Mean?

And he brought me to the opening of the gate of the house of the LORD that faces north, and behold, women were sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

Ezekiel 8:14 · 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

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

THE KEY

The same Hebrew verb names this weeping for Tammuz and the exiles’ weeping for Zion; the object of the tears reveals their direction.

THE MEANING

You meet the scene at the opening of the LORD’s house: women sit there, weeping for Tammuz. The verse holds the discomfort in place, their sorrow is real, and its object is named.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Being inside a sacred place does not, by itself, make every act there an expression of devotion to the LORD.

THE ROOT

מְבַכּוֹת

mevakkot

GROWS FROM

בכה

bakah

to weep, to lament

The women’s ⁨מְבַכּוֹת⁩ (mevakkot, “weeping”) comes from ⁨בכה⁩ (bakah, “to weep”), the same root used when the exiles weep for Zion. Hebrew names the same act in both scenes; the object of the grief, not a different kind of verb, marks the difference.

ALSO GROWS

bekhi: Weeping, the noun form; Psalm 30:5 says, “weeping may endure for a night.”

בְּכִי

The root can name grief as an experience that lasts for a time, without making it the whole story.

bakah: To weep; this root appears as “wept” in Psalm 137:1.

בָּכָה

There the exiles weep when they remember Zion, showing that the same root can describe grief directed toward a different object.

פֶּתַח

petach

GROWS FROM

פתח

patach

to open

⁨פֶּתַח⁩ (petach, “doorway” or “opening”) comes from ⁨פתח⁩ (patach, “to open”). The verse locates the mourning at an opening into the house, fixing the scene at the threshold itself.

ALSO GROWS

patach: To open; Deuteronomy 15:8 uses this root in “thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him.”

פָּתַח

The root reaches beyond a physical doorway to the act of opening.

pithchu: “Open,” as in Psalm 118:19: “Open to me the gates of righteousness.”

פִּתְחוּ

The gate and the opening belong to the same root family, echoing the threshold named in this verse.

THE PATTERN

The object of grief reveals where longing and devotion are directed.

And it came to pass, while the ark settled in Kirjathjearim, that the days multiplied, for it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel moaned after the LORD.

1 Samuel 7:2 · SDVIsrael’s lament turns toward the LORD, showing that grief can express longing directed toward him.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we settled, and we wept when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137:1 · SDVThe exiles’ tears are bound to the place they remember and long for.

And when he drew near, perceiving the city, he wept over it.

Luke 19:41 · SDVJesus’ tears turn toward the city, making their object visible.

THE THREAD

By the rivers of Babylon, there we settled, and we wept when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137:1 · SDV

Both verses use ⁨בכה⁩ (bakah, “to weep”). In Ezekiel the tears are for Tammuz; in the psalm they rise when Zion is remembered, so the root names the act while its object reveals its direction.

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