What Does Ezekiel 14:23 Mean in the King James?
And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, 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
Comfort arrives when devastation becomes legible through the deeds that precede it.
THE MEANING
When you see their ways and deeds, you recognize that what has happened is not without cause. That recognition brings comfort by making the judgment legible; the harm remains real. The verse holds consequence and consolation together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that this judgment is arbitrary or done for nothing: the ways and deeds can be seen, and the cause recognized.
THE ROOT
חִנָּם
chinnam
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously; the word family also carries the sense of what is given freely.
The Hebrew word translated “without cause” also carries the sense of “freely” or “for nothing.” Set beside the deeds just named, it sharpens the claim: this judgment is not gratuitous; its cause can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
chen: Favor, graciousness
חֵן
This branch keeps the sense of freely given favor beside chinnam’s sense of what happens for nothing, sharpening the verse’s claim that these acts are not arbitrary.
chanun: Gracious, showing favor
חַנּוּן
This adjective from the same root shows the family’s connection to gracious action, giving “without cause” an added resonance of what is freely given.
וְנִחַמְתֶּם
venichamtem
GROWS FROM
נחם
To comfort or console; in another form, to relent or be moved to regret.
The same root names consolation and relenting. Here comfort comes through seeing what has happened clearly, rather than through a denial of the ruin.
ALSO GROWS
nechamah: Consolation, comfort
נֶחָמָה
This noun uses the same root for consolation, showing that the verse’s comfort belongs to a wider family of words for being consoled.
nicham: Relent, be moved to regret
נִחַם
This form shows the root’s connection to a changed response, illuminating consolation as a shift in how what has happened is faced.
וִידַעְתֶּם
vidaʿtem
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“know” in this verse is vidaʿtem. The verse places seeing their ways and deeds before knowing. The knowledge here arises as recognition of what is visible, making the cause legible.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root names the understanding that follows seeing in the verse.
hodiʿa: Make known, inform
הוֹדִיעַ
This verb form shows the root’s movement from knowing to making something known, echoing the way visible deeds disclose the cause.
THE PATTERN
Consolation meets painful reality when it becomes recognizable, held in memory, shared, or restored.
I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.THE THREAD
And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.The promise of comfort here uses the same root, נחם, as Ezekiel’s “comfort you.” In both verses, consolation meets a real burden, the toil tied to the ground in Genesis and the visible consequences named in Ezekiel, without pretending the burden is absent.
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