What Does Ezekiel 12:4 Mean in the King James?
Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.
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
“Stuff for removing” and “captivity” both contain גּוֹלָה (golah): the belongings and the exile are already one event.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before an exposed departure: your belongings come out in daylight, and at evening your own body follows. The repeated word for exile binds what is carried to the one being carried away; displacement reaches both possessions and person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that departure begins only when the person leaves: the belongings are already being removed.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹצֵאתָ
vehotsē'tā
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
Go out, emerge; in a causative form, bring out.
“bring forth / go forth” in this verse is vehotsē'tā. The KJV’s “bring forth” and “go forth” are two forms of the same root, יצא (yatsa), “go out / emerge.” First the belongings are brought out; then the person goes out, making departure a sequence that begins before the body leaves.
ALSO GROWS
hotsi: Bring out; cause to come out.
הוֹצִיא
This is the causative branch behind “bring forth thy stuff”: the belongings are made to emerge.
yatsa: Go out; emerge.
יָצָא
This is the branch behind “thou shalt go forth,” as the person follows the belongings into departure.
גּוֹלָה
golah
GROWS FROM
גלה
g-l-h
Uncover or expose; in forms of this root, go into exile or be exiled.
“removing / captivity” in this verse is golah. The Hebrew uses גּוֹלָה (golah), “exile,” both for the belongings’ destination and for the people going into captivity. The root’s sense of uncovering adds an undertone of exposure to the concrete displacement the verse names.
ALSO GROWS
galah: Uncover, reveal, lay bare.
גָּלָה
This branch gives the exile-word an echo of exposure: departure leaves what was sheltered visible.
golah: Exile; the exiled community.
גּוֹלָה
This is the word within both “stuff for removing” and “captivity,” joining what is carried to those carried away.
THE PATTERN
A coming displacement becomes visible when the body enacts its meaning in public.
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.THE THREAD
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;Jeremiah calls the displaced people הַגּוֹלָה (ha-golah, “the exiles”), from גלה (galah, “uncover / go into exile”), the same exile-word behind Ezekiel’s “stuff for removing” and “captivity.” Ezekiel’s luggage is the visible edge of a whole people’s removal.
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