What Does Ezekiel 15:7 Mean in the King James?
And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.
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 repeated “set my face against” makes the fire an encounter with the LORD’s turned presence.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a severe truth in the present: leaving one fire does not end the danger, because another fire consumes them. The LORD’s face is set against them, and recognition of who the LORD is comes through that direct encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Escaping the first danger means the threat is over.
THE ROOT
פָּנַי
panay
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
To turn or direct oneself toward.
Panay (“my face”) belongs to the panah family of turning and directing oneself. The verse’s repeated wording makes the LORD’s face a turned presence and the judgment a direct encounter.
ALSO GROWS
panah: Turn, turn toward.
פָּנָה
This is the action carried in the phrase “set my face”: the LORD’s presence is directed toward them.
panim: Face, presence.
פָּנִים
This branch lets “face” carry the sense of a presence turned toward the people in judgment.
וִידַעְתֶּם
vidaʿtem
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, perceive.
“know” in this verse is vidaʿtem. Yada carries knowing by encounter; here, recognition comes as the LORD’s face is set against them. Their knowledge of the LORD is bound to what they undergo.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun keeps knowledge in the same root family as the verse’s “you shall know.”
yediʿah: Knowing, recognition.
יְדִיעָה
This form highlights knowing as recognition, fitting the encounter through which they recognize the LORD.
THE PATTERN
A person may escape one danger only to be met by another, as judgment remains active.
And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.THE THREAD
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.Psalm 34:16 repeats the face-against construction, using panim for the LORD’s presence turned toward evildoers. Beside Ezekiel, it makes the repeated phrase a picture of direct encounter with that presence.
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