What Does Ezekiel 16:49 Mean in the King James?
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
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 measures Sodom’s full table by the hand it leaves unsupported.
THE MEANING
Where pride, a full table, and undisturbed ease coexist with a hand left unsupported, this verse names the condition crookedness. Abundance and comfort can be present while care is absent; the poor and needy remain without support.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that abundance and ease, by themselves, prove a household or community is whole.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיקָה
heḥĕzîqāh
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be firm or strong; to make firm, hold, or strengthen.
“strengthen” in this verse is heḥĕzîqāh. The verb carries the sense of making something firm and holding it up. The image is a hand, the capacity to act, left without support that could steady it; the same root elsewhere describes upholding a poor neighbor.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
The word shares the root’s sense of firmness: the hand that is not strengthened is left without that steadiness.
ḥōzeq: Strength, might.
חֹזֶק
This noun names the strength that the verse says was not given to the poor and needy.
heḥĕzîq: To hold, uphold, strengthen.
הֶחֱזִיק
This verb form shows that strengthening can mean actively holding someone up.
שִׂבְעַת
śivʿat
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
To be full or satisfied; to satisfy.
“fulness” in this verse is śivʿat. The phrase is שִׂבְעַת־לֶחֶם (śivʿat-leḥem, fullness of bread), set beside a hand left unsupported. The root spans being full and making another full, so the contrast is between abundance at the table and need that remains unsatisfied.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Full, sated, satisfied.
שָׂבֵעַ
It describes the condition of having enough, the condition named beside the unmet need.
śōvaʿ: Fullness, satiety.
שֹׂבַע
This noun shares the root’s idea of being filled and echoes the verse’s abundance of bread.
hiśbîaʿ: To satisfy, satiate.
הִשְׂבִּיעַ
This form shows the root can describe filling another, sharpening the contrast with the needy who remain without support.
הַשְׁקֵט
hashqēṭ
GROWS FROM
שקט
To be quiet, calm, or undisturbed; to quiet.
The phrase וְשַׁלְוַת הַשְׁקֵט (we-shalwat hashqēṭ, ease of quiet) gives the scene an undisturbed quality alongside its abundance. The root שקט (š-q-ṭ, quiet or calm) lets the verse’s “idleness” also be heard as ease that remains untroubled while need goes unsupported.
ALSO GROWS
shāqēṭ: Quiet, at rest, undisturbed.
שָׁקֵט
It names the calm condition present alongside the full table and the unsupported hand.
sheqet: Quiet, calm.
שֶׁקֶט
This noun shares the root’s sense of undisturbed quiet and echoes the verse’s ease.
hišqîṭ: To quiet, still, or make calm.
הִשְׁקִיט
This form shows the root can describe causing quiet, adding depth to the verse’s picture of ease.
THE PATTERN
Abundance is exposed by whether it becomes concrete support for the poor and needy.
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.The Hebrew verb הֶחֱזַקְתָּ (heḥĕzaqta, you strengthen or uphold him) comes from the same root חזק (ḥazaq, to make firm) as Ezekiel’s “strengthen.” One verse names the hand left unsupported; the other names the act of upholding a poor neighbor so that he may live among you.
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