What Does Ezekiel 14:17 Mean in the King James?
Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:
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 verb for “cut off” shares its root with “cut a covenant,” placing severance and covenant-making in the same word-family.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a stark conditional: if the sword passes through this land, both human and animal life are cut off from it. The sword is commanded to cross the land, making the land itself the path of devastation.
THE ROOT
וְהִכְרַתִּי
ve-hikhratti
GROWS FROM
כרת
to cut or sever
וְהִכְרַתִּי (ve-hikhratti) means “I will cut off,” from כרת (karat), “to cut, sever.” This same root appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant,” so Hebrew uses cutting both for severance and for covenant-making.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: to cut a covenant; an idiom for making a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root that describes life being cut off also appears in the language of establishing a covenant.
keritut: severance; divorce
כְּרִיתֻת
This branch names a relationship being severed, echoing the verse’s language of cutting life off from the land.
THE PATTERN
When judgment moves through a land, its reach can extend across the living world rather than stopping at individual people.
The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:Genesis 15:18 says “made a covenant,” while its Hebrew idiom is כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), literally “cut a covenant.” The same root, כרת (karat), appears here as “cut off,” placing covenant-making and severance in the same word-family.
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