What Does Ezekiel 17:17 Mean in the King James?
Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
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 names Pharaoh’s intended work as cutting off many living souls, yet his force still cannot guarantee the king’s rescue.
THE MEANING
A powerful ally’s army cannot guarantee the outcome for the one it supports. The verse exposes what this war is meant to do: cut off many living souls. Strength and human cost stand in the same sentence, while the king’s rescue remains beyond Pharaoh’s force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this overturns is that a powerful ally can guarantee an escape. Pharaoh’s great host cannot secure the king.
THE ROOT
לְהַכְרִית
lehakhrith
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut, sever, or cut off.
“to cut off” in this verse is lehakhrith. The verb behind “cut off” also appears in the Hebrew expression for making a covenant: literally, “cut a covenant.” The shared root holds severance and binding together, a sharp echo in a passage about a broken covenant and the force summoned to preserve the king.
ALSO GROWS
kārat: To cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the verb’s basic sense, made stark here by its object: many living souls.
nikhrat: To be cut off or severed.
נִכְרַת
The passive form shows the other side of the action: the lives under threat are the ones who may be severed.
kārat berit: To cut a covenant; the Hebrew expression for making a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb can name a binding act as well as severance, linking this verse’s violence to the passage’s covenant language.
נְפָשׁוֹת
nephashot
GROWS FROM
נפש
A living self, person, or life; the related verb can mean to rest or refresh oneself.
The KJV’s “persons” is the plural of nephesh: living souls, whole selves. The phrase therefore keeps the human lives in view instead of reducing them to a count of casualties.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: A living soul, self, person, or life.
נֶפֶשׁ
The plural here names the living people the war threatens, not an abstract military tally.
nāphash: To rest or refresh oneself.
נָפַשׁ
This related verb carries the sense of a living self recovering; here, many such selves face being cut off.
THE PATTERN
Military strength cannot guarantee rescue, and the people caught beneath it remain real lives.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The verb translated “cut off” here is כרת (karat), also used in Genesis’s “made a covenant”, literally, “cut a covenant.” The shared verb makes severance and covenant-making ring against each other, sharpening the force of this passage’s broken-covenant language.
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