What Does Ezekiel 18:7 Mean in the King James?
And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;
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
Justice here turns taking around: what was held from the vulnerable returns to them, and what they lack is supplied.
THE MEANING
Your relation to justice is exposed by whether another person’s vulnerability becomes a chance to keep what sustains them, or a reason to return and provide it. Here, integrity takes material shape: a pledge comes back, food reaches the hungry, and clothing covers the naked. The verse speaks of righteousness as a present refusal to extract and a readiness to restore.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a debt makes it harmless to keep the very thing a person needs.
THE ROOT
יָשִׁיב
yashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
to turn back; to return
English “restored” can sound like an added act of generosity; the Hebrew verb grows from שׁוּב (shuv, to return or turn back), so the pledge is turned back to the debtor. Justice reverses a taking: what was held from another returns to them, alongside food and covering.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the movement explicit: the verse’s justice turns what was taken back toward the person who needs it.
heshiv: to bring back; to return or restore something
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form carries the act of making something return, as the holder does with the debtor’s pledge.
THE PATTERN
Justice becomes visible in what is returned to the vulnerable and in food and covering that meet bodily need.
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God.The Hebrew command repeats שׁוּב (shuv, to return), the root behind “restored” here. Deuteronomy shows what the return protects: the debtor’s own clothing and ability to sleep.
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