What Does Ezekiel 13:4 Mean in the King James?
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
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 word translated “deserts” also evokes ruins: these prophets inhabit devastation, while the next verse shows them leaving its breaches unrepaired.
THE MEANING
When spiritual authority appears amid damage, this verse gives you an unsettling image: its voices may be living as foxes among ruins. Their presence there does not mean the ruin is being repaired. The verse names a form of leadership that belongs to devastation instead of restoring what has been broken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A prophetic title does not guarantee that a voice protects people or restores what is broken.
THE ROOT
חָרָבוֹת
ḥoravot
GROWS FROM
חרב
ḥ-r-b
To dry up or be laid waste.
“deserts” in this verse is ḥoravot. The Hebrew חָרָבוֹת (ḥoravot, ruins or desolate places) carries the image of devastation. The prophets are located within that broken landscape; the following verse sharpens the image by naming the breaches they leave unrepaired.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārav: To dry up or be laid waste.
חָרַב
The verb gives the ruin its movement: a place becomes desolate.
ḥorbah: A ruin or desolated place.
חָרְבָּה
This related noun makes the landscape concrete: the foxes are among places left in ruin.
ḥoravot: Ruins or desolate places; the plural form used here.
חָרָבוֹת
This is the verse’s landscape, connecting the prophets’ image to devastation rather than mere emptiness.
THE PATTERN
Voices entrusted with care reveal their nature by whether they prey on vulnerability or protect and restore those exposed to harm.
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?THE THREAD
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.Both verses use חָרָבוֹת (ḥoravot, ruins), from חרב (ḥ-r-b, to be laid waste). Ezekiel pictures foxes among the ruins; Isaiah pictures people rebuilding them and repairing the breach.
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