What Does Ezekiel 16:28 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
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 verse’s shock is that repeated reaching becomes a substitute for fullness, and still cannot fill the hunger.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when one pursuit fails and the next is reached for, as though another attachment could finally fill the ache. Its repeated whore and harlot language names betrayal without softening it, while “couldest not be satisfied” exposes the hunger that keeps the repetition moving. The reaching continues, but it does not become fullness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that one more attachment, acquisition, or alliance will finally satisfy is undone here: repeated reaching can continue without ever becoming fullness.
THE ROOT
שָׂבְעָתֵךְ
śāvaʿtēḵ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
to be full or sated
“unsatiable; satisfied” in this verse is śāvaʿtēḵ. The verse makes lack of satiety the reason for reaching again, then ends with the same hunger still unresolved: “not satisfied.” Proverbs uses this root for eyes that never become full, linking appetite with endless looking.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: full, sated, satisfied
שָׂבֵעַ
This is the fullness the verse’s repeated pursuit cannot reach.
śōvaʿ: satiety, fullness
שֹׂבַע
The noun makes clear what is missing: not another object of desire, but the state of being filled.
וַתִּזְנִי
wattiznî
GROWS FROM
זנה
to act as a prostitute; to commit sexual infidelity
“played the whore; played the harlot” in this verse is wattiznî. The same verb is repeated: “you played the whore” and “you played the harlot.” Its branches name both the act and the one who performs it, so the verse presents a repeated pattern of betrayal rather than a single act.
ALSO GROWS
zōnāh: a prostitute
זֹנָה
The noun gives a name to the figure described by the repeated verb.
zenunim: acts of prostitution or whoredom
זְנוּנִים
This plural form conveys recurring acts, echoing the verse’s doubled verb.
THE PATTERN
What is pursued as a source of fullness can become an endless cycle of reaching that leaves the hunger intact.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:THE THREAD
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.Ezekiel’s “couldest not be satisfied” and Proverbs’ “eyes of man are never satisfied” use the root שׂבע (śāvaʿ), meaning to be full or sated. Together, they show appetite continuing to reach while fullness never arrives.
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