What Does Ezekiel 14:14 Mean in the King James?
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, 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
Even the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job cannot become someone else’s shelter: each life is delivered through its own alignment.
THE MEANING
Your life is not carried through judgment by someone else’s goodness or standing. The verse ties deliverance to each person’s own righteousness, their alignment, and calls that life their own living soul. Even the presence of Noah, Daniel, and Job does not make another person’s life theirs to deliver.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s goodness or spiritual standing can serve as a transferable shelter for your own life.
THE ROOT
בְּצִדְקָתָם
b'tzidqatam
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right or just; the project’s established sense is alignment.
The verse locates deliverance in their own alignment; the possessive matters because each person’s standing belongs to that person. The root connects righteousness with being right or just, while the sentence keeps each man’s deliverance with his own life.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: rightness, justice
צֶדֶק
The related noun shows that righteousness carries the sense of being in what is right.
tsaddiq: a righteous or just person
צַדִּיק
This is the person described by the same root: one whose life is aligned with what is right.
נַפְשָׁם
nafsham
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self: a person’s life, self, or living soul.
“souls” in this verse is nafsham. Nefesh means the living person, not a detachable inner part. The verse says these men deliver their own whole lives; their goodness does not turn another person’s life into their own.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: living soul, living self
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the singular form behind “souls,” naming a whole living person.
nafsho: his life, his self
נַפְשׁוֹ
The same noun with a possessive suffix makes the personal boundary explicit: the life belongs to him.
יְנַצְּלוּ
yenatselu
GROWS FROM
נצל
To snatch away, rescue, or strip away.
“deliver” in this verse is yenatselu. Deliverance here is concrete extraction: a life is pulled clear. This root can also describe taking spoils, so the verb’s shared thread is removal from someone’s grasp, not a vague promise of safety.
ALSO GROWS
nitsal: be rescued, escape
נִצַּל
This form names a person being pulled out of danger, like the men’s own lives here.
wenitsaltem: you shall spoil or plunder
וְנִצַּלְתֶּם
In Exodus 3:22 the same root describes taking Egypt’s goods; the shared image is something being stripped away or pulled free.
THE PATTERN
A person’s life and standing are their own; another person’s righteousness does not transfer to them.
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.THE THREAD
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.This verse reuses the Hebrew words for living soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nephesh) and righteousness (צְדָקָה, tzedakah). Together, they make the boundary in Ezekiel 14:14 unmistakable: each person’s living life stands with that person’s own alignment.
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