What Does Ezekiel 22:23 Mean in the King James?
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
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 Hebrew word rendered “word” also means “matter”: what reaches you is not mere language but the matter the LORD is bringing into speech.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word reaches you as an address: it comes “unto me,” and begins “saying.” You stand at the threshold where a matter is about to be spoken into view, before its particulars unfold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a word from the LORD is only detached information to inspect; here it arrives as an address that opens a matter between speaker and hearer.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, utter; the related noun can mean a word or a matter.
English separates a spoken word from the matter being discussed, but Hebrew davar can name both. Here the LORD’s utterance carries the matter itself: speech arrives already joined to what is about to be disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke, uttered.
דִּבֵּר
The word in this verse is not detached information; it is speech beginning to address a hearer.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This branch keeps together what English divides: the utterance and the matter it brings into view.
THE PATTERN
God’s word arrives as living address and carries action: it is spoken, goes forth, and becomes present.
And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word, davar (דָּבָר, “word, matter”), and says it goes forth and accomplishes. That opens this verse’s brief arrival as the beginning of an effective utterance: its message is still about to be spoken, yet its presence is already moving toward its work.
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