What Does Ezekiel 13:1 Mean in the King James?

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ezekiel 13:1 · KJV

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 Hebrew word for “word” can also mean “matter”: what comes to Ezekiel is speech that arrives as something real to meet.

THE MEANING

The word addresses you as something received before it becomes something you can say. Its arrival comes before your explanation; you do not have to manufacture the truth that meets you now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that truth is valid only when you originate it yourself.

THE ROOT

דְּבַר

devar

GROWS FROM

דבר

To speak; as a noun, a spoken word or matter.

Davar can mean both “word” and “matter” or “thing,” holding speech and what it speaks about together. Here, the LORD’s speech comes to Ezekiel before he speaks: the message is received as an address, not made up by its hearer.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, or thing.

דָּבָר

The same word can name speech and a matter, suggesting the message arrives as something to meet, not merely as sound.

dibber: He spoke; to speak or utter.

דִּבֵּר

This verbal form from the same root echoes “saying”: the word that comes is spoken address.

THE PATTERN

Divine speech is received before it is voiced, and its reception makes it active within the hearer.

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · KJVAs here, the word arrives before the hearer speaks.

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Psalm 107:20 · KJVThe word is sent outward and reaches people with restoring force.

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 · KJVThe received word works within the hearer rather than remaining only something heard.

THE THREAD

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6 · KJV

The same Hebrew word, davar (⁨דָּבָר⁩), names the word through which the heavens are made. That connection opens Ezekiel’s verse onto speech as something that arrives with force, not as a sound that simply passes.

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