What Does Ezekiel 21:2 Mean in the King James?
Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,
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 word is told to drip onto the sacred center, then speak against the whole ground it stands in.
THE MEANING
You stand before a word directed toward Jerusalem’s set-apart places and spoken against the land of Israel. The verse brings sacred space and the wider ground together under confrontation: what is set apart is still within the word’s reach. The message descends toward the center and addresses the whole land.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is sacred is therefore beyond confrontation.
THE ROOT
נָטַף
nāṭap̄
GROWS FROM
נטף
To drip or distil; the root also describes prophetic speech.
The word translated “drop” is the same root used elsewhere for prophesying. The image makes the message something that descends onto its target, rather than speech that simply passes by.
ALSO GROWS
haṭṭēp̄: “Drop!” or “prophesy!”
הַטֵּף
This imperative form is used in the verse itself, making the prophetic address a kind of directed dripping.
haṭṭîp̄: “Prophesy,” literally using the root of dripping
הַטִּיף
Micah 2:11 uses this form for prophetic speech, showing that the dripping image belongs to the language of prophecy.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a spoken matter or thing.
Davar can name both a word and a matter or thing. The message is not detached sound: it addresses the actual ground named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The word directed toward Jerusalem carries the substance of what it addresses.
dibber: Spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb from the same root connects the spoken message with the concrete matter it brings into view.
מִקְדָּשִׁים
miqdāšîm
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart.
“holy places” in this verse is miqdāšîm. The places named as holy are places set apart. Yet the word is directed toward them, showing that being set apart does not put them beyond the reach of confrontation.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective names the quality associated with the places addressed.
qōdesh: Set-apartness; sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
The related noun makes clear that “holy places” are spaces marked off as sacred.
THE PATTERN
A word that comes from God reaches its hearers as provision, exposure, or confrontation according to what it meets.
Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.Amos uses the same root for “drop” and the same word for “word,” directing that speech against Israel too. The shared phrasing shows that the dripping image names prophetic address that can confront a people.
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