What Does Ezekiel 11:3 Mean in the King James?
Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
They mistake containment for protection: a city called a caldron can hold the flesh inside it without keeping harm away.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment when danger is called distant and a familiar place is taken for safety. It asks whether being held inside a structure is the same as being protected by it. The pot and flesh image makes confidence concrete: walls can contain you without saving you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this image undoes is: “It is not near, so what I have built around me guarantees safety.” Confidence about distance does not make containment protection.
THE ROOT
קָרוֹב
qarov
GROWS FROM
קרב
Approach, come near.
Qarov (near) shares its root with qarab (to approach) and qorban (an offering, something brought near). The denial of nearness therefore sits beside a root that names approach, while the caldron image shows the confidence that containment can settle the question.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: Approach, draw near.
קָרַב
The root behind “near” also names movement toward; the verse’s claim of distance does not erase the possibility of approach.
qorban: Offering; something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The same root links nearness with what is brought close, adding depth to the verse’s question of what the city contains and what is approaching.
THE PATTERN
Calling danger distant or security settled cannot make an enclosure protect what it contains.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.THE THREAD
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.The caldron and flesh image returns, but its meaning turns: the city’s claimed protection is named alongside slain flesh. The verse also names movement out from the city’s midst.
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