What Does Ezekiel 16:5 Mean in the King James?
None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
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 pairing of abhorrence with a living soul returns in a verse where God says that his own soul does not abhor the people.
THE MEANING
This verse names the moment a life arrives exposed and meets no protecting gaze. It leaves the violence plain: a newborn is cast into the open, and revulsion meets her living soul where compassion should have been. It names abandonment without explaining it away or calling it deserved.
THE ROOT
בְּגֹעַל
bəgōʿal
GROWS FROM
ג־ע־ל
g-ʿ-l
To abhor or reject with revulsion.
The word for loathing comes from a root that names active abhorrence. Paired with “living soul,” it makes clear that the rejection is directed at a living person, not merely at an unfortunate circumstance.
ALSO GROWS
tigaʿal: To abhor or reject with revulsion.
תִּגְעַל
The same verb appears in the line “my soul shall not abhor you,” directly answering the rejection named here.
gāʿălāh: Abhorred; regarded with revulsion.
גָּעֲלָה
This lament also pairs the verb for loathing with the word for soul, showing how starkly the language can name rejection.
נַפְשֵׁךְ
nafshekh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־ש
n-p-sh
The living self: a person or life.
The word rendered “person” is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul), the living self. It also names life itself, so the phrase holds the person and the life exposed to rejection together.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh ḥayyāh: A living soul; a living being.
נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
The same word names a living being, keeping the verse’s “person” concrete and alive.
nefesh: Life; a person’s life.
נֶפֶשׁ
In “life for life,” the same word means life itself, underscoring what is exposed in Ezekiel’s scene.
חָמַל
ḥāmal
GROWS FROM
ח־מ־ל
ḥ-m-l
To spare; to show compassion.
The verb translated “have compassion” can also mean “spare.” The missing compassion here is concrete: no one acts to preserve or protect the newborn from exposure.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmal: To show compassion; to spare.
חָמַל
The same verb describes Pharaoh’s daughter’s response when she sees an endangered infant, joining compassion with protective action.
taḥmōl: To spare or leave unharmed.
תַּחְמֹל
The same root can name whether someone is spared, making the absent compassion here a failure of protection, not only a lack of feeling.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes real when a life left exposed is seen and received.
And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.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
And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.The wording repeats both the verb translated “abhor” and the noun translated “soul” from Ezekiel’s line. Where Ezekiel names a person surrounded by abhorrence, this verse says that God’s own soul does not abhor the people.
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