What Does Ezekiel 12:5 Mean in the King James?
Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
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
The way out is made in the wall itself, and “carry out” is Hebrew’s causative of “go out”: an emergence made visible.
THE MEANING
You are before a wall while people watch; the way through is cut into the barrier, and what is brought out passes through that breach. Departure is visible work, made through the very boundary that blocks the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an enclosing wall means there is no way out: here, a way is cut through that very wall.
THE ROOT
חֳתָר
ḥŏṯār
GROWS FROM
חתר
To dig or bore through.
“Dig through” in this verse is ḥŏṯār. The root חתר (ḥ-t-r) carries the force of tunneling through a barrier. Its branch מַחְתֶּרֶת (maḥteret), “a break-in made by digging,” holds both passage and intrusion in the same image: the wall is breached, not opened like a door.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṯar: To dig or bore through.
חָתַר
This is the root verb: the route out begins as penetration of the wall.
maḥteret: A break-in made by digging; a breach.
מַחְתֶּרֶת
This noun from the same root shows the force of the act: a way through is made by breaking the boundary.
וְהוֹצֵאתָ
wəhôṣēʾtā
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out or emerge.
The word וְהוֹצֵאתָ (wəhôṣēʾtā) is the causative form of יצא (yāṣāʾ): “make go out,” or “bring forth.” English can make “carry out” sound like transport alone; the Hebrew ties it to emergence, so bringing something out and going out share one seed.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: To go out or emerge.
יָצָא
The basic verb names the movement that “carry out” makes possible.
môṣāʾ: A going forth, outlet, or source.
מוֹצָא
This branch names both the outward movement and the place or point from which something comes forth.
THE PATTERN
A blocked passage becomes a route when the boundary itself is breached or opened.
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;THE THREAD
And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.This verse repeats חתר (ḥ-t-r, “dig through”) and יצא (y-ṣ-ʾ, “go out”), the root behind “carry out” here. What verse 12:5 compresses becomes explicit: the wall is dug through so someone can emerge through it.
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