What Does Ezekiel 18:1 Mean in the King James?
The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
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 Hebrew word for “word” can also mean “matter” or “thing,” so what reaches you is speech already moving into reality.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word reaches you as something arriving, then opens into speech. Its coming “again” shows that a word can return with fresh force; one hearing does not exhaust what it can disclose.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a word from God is only information to consider: here, the word arrives and speaks as an unfolding reality.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; also a word, matter, or thing.
Hebrew dabar can name both speech and a matter or thing, joining what is spoken to what comes into being or attention. Here, the LORD’s word comes and speaks: it is not detached information, but an arriving reality.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֶּר
The spoken action belongs to the same root as the word that comes; the verse presents arrival and speech as one movement.
davar: A matter, thing, or affair.
דָּבָר
This meaning lets “word” carry the sense of a matter at hand, not merely a string of sounds.
THE PATTERN
A word that goes forth carries movement toward what it speaks.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word, davar, for the word that goes out and accomplishes its purpose. It opens Ezekiel’s “came … saying” as a word already in motion.
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