What Does Ezekiel 16:55 Mean in the King James?
When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.
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
Sodom and Samaria are named as returning before Jerusalem, placing even the names most marked by ruin inside the promise of return.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses you through Jerusalem: your return belongs to a wider restoration, with Sodom and Samaria named before you. Its repeated promise is that each returns to what was before, though the sequence remains intact: their return, then yours.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Sodom’s ruin makes return impossible: Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem are all named as returning.
THE ROOT
תְּשֻׁבֶיןָ
teshuvenah
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
sh-w-b
Turn back; return.
The same verb is repeated for Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem, joining their returns in one movement. The root holds turning back and returning together, so the verse describes restoration as a return to what came before.
ALSO GROWS
yashuv: He returns.
יָשׁוּב
This form makes the same return explicit as an action: what has gone away comes back.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the turn within the idea of return, echoing the verse’s repeated movement back to a former state.
לְקַדְמָתָן
leqadmatān
GROWS FROM
קָדַם
q-d-m
Come before; be in front, hence what precedes or came earlier.
The phrase translated “former estate” belongs to the language of what came before. Paired with “return,” it presents restoration as a movement back toward a prior condition.
ALSO GROWS
qedem: What is before; ancient time, and the east.
קֶדֶם
This branch links the former state to what lies before or earlier.
qedmah: Eastward; forward.
קֵדְמָה
Its sense of direction shows how the same word family can point toward what is in front.
THE PATTERN
Return restores what has been lost or displaced to a former condition.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The Hebrew verb behind “restoreth” comes from the same root as the repeated “shall return” in Ezekiel. One root holds the return of whole cities and the restoring of a person together.
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