What Does Ezekiel 21:28 Mean in the King James?
And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
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 sword is not merely drawn: it is “opened,” and its glitter is a flash attached to the slaughter being prepared.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with violence fully visible: the sword is uncovered, prepared for slaughter, and ready to consume. Its gleam belongs to the threat, not to a separate ornament. The doubled “sword” holds the blade in your attention.
THE ROOT
פְּתוּחָה
petuḥah
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
to open, unseal
The KJV says the sword is “drawn,” while the Hebrew calls it open. That root also names an opening or doorway, so the blade is not a vague motion: it is exposed, and the slaughter is brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
pataḥ: to open
פָּתַח
This is the root verb behind the sword being described as open.
petaḥ: opening, doorway
פֶּתַח
The related noun preserves the sense of an opening: the weapon is exposed to view.
חֶרֶב
ḥerev
GROWS FROM
חרב
ḥ-r-b
to become dry, desolate, or laid waste
The sword’s name shares its consonants with the language of desolation. Its violence is already echoed in its name: the blade belongs to a world being stripped and laid waste.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārav: to become waste or desolate
חָרַב
This verb makes the sword’s name resonate with the devastation it brings.
ḥārēv: dry, desolate
חָרֵב
This related form gives the sword’s consonants the image of a landscape emptied of life.
בְּרָק
beraq
GROWS FROM
ברק
b-r-q
to flash, shine
What the KJV calls “glittering” is the Hebrew word for a flash, also used for lightning. The blade’s gleam is bound to the violence it is prepared to enact, not set apart as decoration.
ALSO GROWS
baraq: to flash, shine
בָּרַק
The verb names the sudden gleam carried by the blade.
baraq: lightning, flash
בָּרָק
The related noun makes the weapon’s glitter a sharp flash rather than a gentle light.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes judgment visible through an exposed weapon whose threatened harm is stated plainly.
For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.THE THREAD
The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew word for sword, חֶרֶב (ḥerev), and also pictures the blade devouring. That shared word opens Ezekiel’s gleaming weapon outward: its violence reaches beyond a single flash and consumes across the land.
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