What Does Ezekiel 18:22 Mean in the King James?
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
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 past rebellion is no longer the person’s defining account; enacted alignment is bound to life.
THE MEANING
Your rebellions are not recalled as the final charge defining you. The alignment you enact is bound to life now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The rebellion in my past is the permanent account by which my life is defined.
THE ROOT
יִזָּכְרוּ
yizzāḵərû
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, or bring into mention.
“mentioned” in this verse is yizzāḵərû. The Hebrew says the rebellions will not be “remembered to him.” The image is not that the past never happened, but that it is no longer brought forward as his defining charge.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
This branch shows the same root’s sense of keeping something present in memory; here, the rebellion is not kept before the person as a standing charge.
hizkîr: mention, bring to mind
הִזְכִּיר
This form makes remembering an act of bringing something forward, illuminating what it means for the rebellion not to be mentioned to him.
פְּשָׁעָיו
pešaʿāv
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-š-ʿ
Rebel or break away; the word carries the sense of rebellion or breach.
“transgressions” in this verse is pešaʿāv. The verse names real rebellion rather than a vague mistake, then says that rebellion does not remain the person’s defining account. Its force is sharpened by the next phrase: the person lives in the alignment he has done.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: rebellion, breach
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the rupture directly, matching the verse’s clear naming of what has been committed.
pōšēaʿ: one who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This form describes the person through the act of breaking away; the verse refuses to let that description stand as the final account.
צִדְקָתוֹ
ṣidqātô
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Be just or right; the project’s root sense is alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is ṣidqātô. The verse ties this alignment to what the person has done, not only to a label attached to him. What is enacted in right relation is joined here to life.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: justice, rightness
צֶדֶק
This branch names the quality of right relation that gives “righteousness” its root-level sense of alignment.
ṣaddîq: a just or aligned person
צַדִּיק
This branch shows how the root can describe a person by the quality of their alignment, not by a past act of rebellion.
THE PATTERN
A past rebellion does not have to remain a person’s defining account; life appears in alignment with what is right.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.THE THREAD
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.Jeremiah uses זכר (z-k-r, zakar: remember or call to mind), the same root carried by Ezekiel’s “mentioned.” Together, the verses show release as a change in what is held against the person: rebellion is no longer brought forward as the defining account.
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