What Does Ezekiel 20:14 Mean in the King James?
But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.
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
God’s name is kept from being made common through an action everyone can see: bringing people out.
THE MEANING
God acts so the nature carried by his name remains visible before those watching. His deliverance is public: the people who see the way out also see what that action reveals about him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s name is merely a label, untouched by how his actions appear to those watching.
THE ROOT
הַחֵל
haḥēl
GROWS FROM
חלל
To make common or profane.
“polluted” in this verse is haḥēl. The Hebrew verb points to treating something as common, not merely making it dirty. The verse’s concern is that watching nations might see God’s name stripped of its distinct character.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common, ordinary; what is not set apart.
חֹל
This branch shows the sense beneath “polluted”: the name could be treated as ordinary before the nations.
ḥillēl: To profane, to treat as common.
חִלֵּל
This verb form shares the root in the verse and makes the concern explicit: what people see can make the name seem common.
הוֹצֵאתִים
hōṣēʾtîm
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, emerge, or come forth; in this verb form, to bring someone out.
“brought them out” in this verse is hōṣēʾtîm. The root describes movement outward, while the form here makes God the one bringing them out. The departure is visible to the nations, so the act of deliverance also makes God’s nature visible.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: To go out, come forth, or emerge.
יָצָא
This is the basic movement contained in “brought them out”: people move from within a place to outside it.
môṣāʾ: An exit or way out.
מוֹצָא
This related noun makes the outward movement concrete: the verse speaks of a people being brought through an exit into freedom.
THE PATTERN
God’s visible deliverance makes the nature and power carried by his name known to those watching.
And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.THE THREAD
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.The same Hebrew root, חלל (ḥ-l-l), means to profane by making common. Here the name is set apart before watching eyes, opening Ezekiel 20:14’s concern: what people witness shapes what they understand about God’s nature.
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