What Does Ezekiel 18:13 Mean in the King James?
Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
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 “usury” carries the image of a bite, so the added gain is pictured as something that injures, and whose taker bears the consequence.
THE MEANING
This verse names a life that turns lending into added gain as a life marked by abominations. Its repeated verdict, “he shall not live”, ends with “his blood shall be upon him,” placing responsibility on the one who acts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that gain from lending sits outside moral responsibility: the one who takes it bears the consequence.
THE ROOT
נֶשֶׁךְ
neshekh
GROWS FROM
נשך
To bite.
English makes usury sound like an abstract charge; the Hebrew word retains the image of a bite. That bodily image lets the verse’s financial language carry the sense of injury beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: To bite.
נָשַׁךְ
This verb shares the root and makes the physical image audible within the word for usury.
noshekh: One who bites; a person who charges usury.
נֹשֵׁךְ
The lender’s role itself is formed from the same root as the bite, joining the person who takes interest to the image of injury.
תַּרְבִּית
tarbit
GROWS FROM
רבה
To increase, grow, or become many.
The verse pairs the bite with increase: it speaks of an added amount that grows the lender’s gain. The root keeps that enlargement visible as part of the act being judged.
ALSO GROWS
ravah: To increase or become many.
רָבָה
This is the basic growth sense carried by the word translated “increase.”
hirbah: To multiply or make many.
הִרְבָּה
This causative form shows the same root as an increase made to grow, illuminating the lender’s added gain.
THE PATTERN
When lending turns another’s need into an opportunity for added gain, the added charge remains morally accountable.
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.Both verses use נֶשֶׁךְ (neshekh, “bite”) for usury, preserving the same bodily image beneath the financial term. Exodus makes the borrower’s burden explicit; Ezekiel names the consequence for the one who takes the charge.
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