What Does Ezekiel 14:6 Mean in the King James?
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
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
One Hebrew root drives all three commands, joining return with turning from idols and redirecting the face.
THE MEANING
This word meets you where your attention is fixed on what has become an idol. The turn reaches your direction, your attachments, and what you are willing to face. You turn from the idols and turn your face away from what has become abhorrent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that turning is only inward remorse; it includes what you turn away from and where your face goes.
THE ROOT
שׁוּבוּ
shuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back, return.
The KJV separates this root into “Repent,” “turn yourselves,” and “turn away”; the Hebrew repeats שׁוּב (shuv, turn back) in שׁוּבוּ (shuvu, return) and הָשִׁיבוּ (hashivu, turn back) twice. The repetition joins return with turning from idols and redirecting the face: turning is a change in what the whole person faces.
ALSO GROWS
shav: He returned.
שָׁב
This simple form shows the return at the seed of all three commands.
heshiv: He brought back, restored, or turned something back.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form echoes the verse’s command to turn the face, showing the same root at work in redirecting what is faced.
THE PATTERN
Turning in scripture redirects the whole person away from what has become an object of devotion and toward relationship.
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.Hosea begins with שׁוּב (shuv, return), the same root repeated through Ezekiel’s commands. The connection opens the turn from idols as a return toward the LORD.
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