What Does Ezekiel 22:13 Mean in the King James?
Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
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 profit is itself a cut: what is taken as gain leaves blood inside the community.
THE MEANING
Where you make gain by taking from others, blood is already in your midst; profit and violence share one reality. The voice of God strikes its hand against both, exposing the harm accumulation holds inside the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
I can keep the profit and separate it from the bloodshed that produced it.
THE ROOT
בֶּצַע
betsaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
b-ts-ʿ
to cut off, break off; by extension, gain or profit
“dishonest gain” in this verse is betsaʿ. English makes gain sound like a possession; Hebrew places it on the same root as cutting off. Here the profit and the blood in the community are not separate wrongs: the gain carries the harm of what was taken.
ALSO GROWS
bātsaʿ: to cut off, break off, or gain
בָּצַע
The verb keeps the image of taking something away inside the word for acquiring.
betsaʿ: gain, profit, or ill-gotten gain
בֶּצַע
This is the noun used for the city’s gain, joining its enrichment to the act of taking.
botseaʿ: one who gains or covets
בֹּצֵעַ
The same root describes the person pursuing gain, connecting the profit to the one who takes it.
הִכֵּיתִי
hikkēti
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
to strike or smite
“smitten” in this verse is hikkēti. The verse makes the response bodily: the speaker strikes his palm against the gain and the blood. The gesture puts both harms in view together, instead of leaving the violence abstract or hidden.
ALSO GROWS
makkāh: a blow, wound, or plague
מַכָּה
The branch names the injury carried by an act of striking, echoing the blood already present in the verse.
mukkēh: struck or wounded
מֻכֶּה
The participle describes one who bears the impact, keeping the focus on the harm behind the city’s gain.
THE PATTERN
Profit taken from others carries harm into the community, where it becomes visible and is heard by God.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!Habakkuk uses the same root, בצע, for covetous gain, linking the passages through the word itself. There, as here, gain is accumulated into a house meant to offer security, while the harm of taking remains bound to it.
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