What Does Ezekiel 20:4 Mean in the King James?
Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:
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 repeated call to judge resolves into “cause them to know”: here, judgment exposes what has been inherited.
THE MEANING
The passage speaks now as inherited patterns come into conscious recognition: what was handed down is named in its concrete shape. Judgment brings the fathers’ abominations into view instead of leaving them blurred as family inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inherited wrongdoing is too old or distant to be named and recognized in the present.
THE ROOT
הוֹדִיעֵם
hodi'em
GROWS FROM
ידע
to know, recognize, perceive by encounter
“cause them to know” in this verse is hodi'em. The verb is causative: the charge is to bring them into knowing, not merely to pronounce a verdict. English can make this sound like passing on information, but yada carries recognition through encounter.
ALSO GROWS
yada: know, recognize
יָדַע
It carries the root sense of knowing through direct recognition, the work the command calls for.
da'at: knowledge, perception
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that the verse moves wrongdoing from obscurity into something recognized.
הֲתִשְׁפֹּט
ha-tishpot
GROWS FROM
שפט
to judge, govern, adjudicate
The word appears twice, then the verse directs judgment toward making the abominations known. Its branches connect a judge with the ordering judgment brings, so the verse presents exposure as part of judgment’s work.
ALSO GROWS
mishpat: judgment, justice
מִשְׁפָּט
This branch names the ordering judgment brings to what has been concealed or left unexamined.
shofet: judge
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the one who brings a matter into judgment, echoing the verse’s repeated charge.
תּוֹעֲבוֹת
to'evot
GROWS FROM
תעב
to abhor, regard as repugnant
The root carries a sense of revulsion beneath the formal English word “abominations.” The verse asks that this repellent inheritance be brought into recognition, not left as an unnamed past.
ALSO GROWS
to'evah: abomination, something abhorrent
תּוֹעֵבָה
This singular form shows the same root beneath the verse’s plural “abominations.”
to'ev: detestable, loathsome
תּוֹעֵב
This related form makes the root’s quality of repugnance explicit.
THE PATTERN
Judgment brings concealed wrongdoing into recognition by exposing it to view.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.THE THREAD
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,This repeats the same Hebrew roots: יָדַע (yada, know) and תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, abomination). It shows that making the abominations known is itself the work the verse names as judgment.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us