What Does Ezra 1:7 Mean?
Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had set them in the house of his gods.
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
Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods;THE KEY
The same verb marks both the vessels’ removal from Jerusalem and their emergence again, so their displacement is not the final word over where they belong.
THE MEANING
The vessels are moving out of Jerusalem, sitting inside another god’s house, and now being brought out again. Their placement names where they are, while the verse keeps their originating house attached to them. Displacement and recovery appear together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is placed in another’s keeping has lost its first belonging for good.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיא
hotsi
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
To go out or emerge; in this causative form, to bring or cause something to come out.
“brought out” in this verse is hotsi. The same form of this root describes Nebuchadnezzar bringing the vessels out of Jerusalem and Cyrus bringing them out again. English repeats “brought forth,” but the Hebrew repetition makes the reversal audible: the vessels’ movement out is not finished with their first removal.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, come out, or emerge.
יָצָא
The basic form names the movement itself, which the verse applies first to removal and then to release from the place holding the vessels.
motsa: An exit, outlet, or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
This branch names the passage out, bringing the verse’s focus to a crossing from one domain into another.
וַיִּתְּנֵם
wayittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“set them” in this verse is wayittenem. The verse says the vessels were set in the house of Nebuchadnezzar’s gods. This root also forms words for giving, so the placement is a transfer into another domain; the repeated verb “bring out” shows that this setting does not settle their belonging.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root’s basic verb and names the act that puts the vessels in the foreign house.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This branch carries the sense of something given or handed over, illuminating how placement can mark transfer without erasing the vessels’ named origin.
THE PATTERN
Being carried away or lost does not erase belonging; the text can name return as restoration.
They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they will stay until the day that I visit them, says the LORD. Then I will bring them up, and bring them back to this place.And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored, and brought again to the temple at Jerusalem, each one to its place, and set them in the house of God.For this son of mine was dead, and is living again; he had lost his way, and is found." And they began to be glad.THE THREAD
And they baked unrisen round cakes from the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it had not soured; because they were driven out of Egypt and could not linger, nor had they made food for themselves.Exodus uses the same Hebrew root יצא (yatsa, go out) in the causative form הוֹצִיאוּ (hotsi’u, they brought out) for what the people carry out of Egypt. Ezra applies that same movement to the vessels: what has been removed from its place can emerge again from the house that holds it.
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