What Does Ezekiel 2:3 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
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 same Hebrew root first calls the people rebellious and then says they rebelled, so the message is sent into a rupture named as both condition and act.
THE MEANING
The address “Son of man” (בֶּן־אָדָם, ben-’adam: human, ground-being) places the one being sent within ordinary humanity; resistance is both inherited and active now. A word enters that rupture, leaving neither its force nor the sending hidden.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that entrenched resistance makes a person unreachable: the messenger is sent precisely into that resistance.
THE ROOT
הַמֹּרְדִים
hammōredîm
GROWS FROM
מרד
marad
To rebel or revolt; to break allegiance.
“rebellious / rebelled” in this verse is hammōredîm. The participle calls them “rebellious”; the verb immediately repeats the same seed as “they rebelled.” Hebrew makes the condition and its enactment one root family, naming resistance as both what is done and what persists.
ALSO GROWS
mered: Rebellion, revolt
מֶרֶד
The noun gathers the action into a state of revolt, echoing the verse’s description of a rebellious people.
hammōredîm: The rebellious ones
הַמֹּרְדִים
This participle names the people by the very action the following verb repeats.
פָּשְׁעוּ
pāšəʿū
GROWS FROM
פשע
pasha
To rebel, revolt, or break away.
The word rendered “transgressed” carries the language of rebellion and breaking away. “Against me” keeps the breach personal, while “they and their fathers” carries it across generations into “this very day.”
ALSO GROWS
pesha: Rebellion, breach
פֶּשַׁע
The noun shows the rupture carried by the verb in the verse.
pōshēaʿ: A rebel, one who breaks away
פּוֹשֵׁעַ
This form names the person through the act of rebellion, echoing the verse’s repeated description.
שֹׁלֵחַ
shōlēaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
To send forth, send away, or release.
“send” in this verse is shōlēaḥ. The commission uses shalach, whose range includes sending forth and releasing. The messenger is sent directly into the rupture the verse names, placing the possibility of release at its point of resistance.
ALSO GROWS
mishlōaḥ: Sending, dispatch
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This noun keeps the sense of a message or person being sent out from a sender.
shillūaḥ: Sending away, dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch carries the root’s sense of release, adding depth to the act of sending.
THE PATTERN
A word is sent into resistance, and whether it is received or refused, its presence makes the refusal visible.
And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.THE THREAD
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.Isaiah’s “rebelled” uses the same פשע (pasha) root as Ezekiel’s “transgressed.” Both verses name the rupture as rebellion against the one speaking, making Ezekiel’s charge part of a pattern that reaches into the present.
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