What Does Ezekiel 21:5 Mean in the King James?
That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
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
Knowing the LORD here is bodily knowledge: all flesh learns who has acted from a sword already out of its sheath and declared not to return.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of an exposed and irreversible force: the LORD’s sword is out, and it does not return. “All flesh” names every living body as a witness to who has acted; here, knowing arrives through encounter with the violence the verse names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what the LORD has unsheathed is guaranteed to be recalled.
THE ROOT
וְיָדְעוּ
wəyādʿū
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
To know, recognize, or perceive through experience.
“know” in this verse is wəyādʿū. Yādaʿ names knowing that can arise through direct encounter, not detached information. Here, “all flesh” does not merely receive a report; every living body is made to recognize who has acted through the sword’s emergence.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun carries the same seed of knowing; the verse makes that knowledge something encountered, not simply stated.
yediʿah: Knowing, knowledge
יְדִיעָה
This branch names the knowing itself, underscoring that the sword’s emergence becomes an experience through which all flesh recognizes its source.
הוֹצֵאתִי
hōṣēti
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
To go out, come out, or emerge.
“drawn forth” in this verse is hōṣēti. The verb is causative: the LORD brings the sword out of its sheath. The same root can name an exit or emergence, but here it is the sword that is made to emerge, and the sentence assigns that act directly to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
yetsiʾah: Going out, departure
יְצִיאָה
This branch shows the root’s basic movement outward; in the verse, that movement is the sword leaving its covering.
motsāʾ: An outlet, point of departure, or origin
מוֹצָא
The root can name where something comes out; here, the sheath is the boundary the sword passes through.
תָּשׁוּב
tāshūv
GROWS FROM
ש־ו־ב
To turn back or return.
The same seed underlies return and turning. This line closes that movement for the sword: it does not turn back into its sheath.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch names the return the verse expressly denies the sword.
meshūvah: Turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch preserves the root’s sense of a change in direction; the verse makes the sword’s direction one-way.
THE PATTERN
When God’s sword comes out, judgment becomes visible in what it strikes.
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.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
And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.The same root, יָדַע (yādaʿ, “know”), appears here, and the verse places that knowing after the slain fall. The connection makes the knowledge in Ezekiel 21:5 concrete: it comes through encounter with the violence the text names.
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