What Does Ezekiel 13:16 Mean in the King James?
To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.
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 picture shalom for Yerushalayim while the wholeness in the city’s name is still absent.
THE MEANING
You can be surrounded by confident visions of a whole life while the wholeness they promise is still missing. The verse places the claim beside the condition without blurring them: they see peace for her, and there is no peace. The gap between vision and reality remains visible in the same word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a reassuring picture of wholeness proves wholeness is already present. Naming peace does not, by itself, make peace.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound; to bring something to completion.
“peace” in this verse is shalom. Shalom is wholeness, not only an absence of conflict. It shares its root with shalem, “whole,” and shillem, “repay, make good”; the name Yerushalayim (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם) carries this resonance of shalom with the dual ending -ayim. The verse makes the fracture audible: visions of wholeness are spoken over the city of wholeness, yet no wholeness is there.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
The prophets envision the city as whole, but the verse says the wholeness is not present.
shillem: To repay, recompense, or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch connects wholeness with making good what is owed, rather than merely speaking as though all is well.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is exposed as false when it is spoken while harm remains, and made visible when safety is established.
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.THE THREAD
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.Jeremiah repeats the same root in “Peace, peace,” then says there is no peace, the same fracture between vision and reality that Ezekiel names. “Healed ... slightly” sharpens the connection: words of repair can cover an injury without making the whole.
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