What Does Ezekiel 22:24 Mean in the King James?
Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
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
Hebrew places cleansing and rain together: judgment leaves the land without either the washing that restores it or the water that sustains it.
THE MEANING
The verse sets before you a land left both uncleansed and unwatered under indignation. Purification and rain are separate absences, so judgment is felt as unresolved defilement and deprivation of what makes the ground fruitful. The text names the aridity without softening it.
THE ROOT
מְטֹהָרָה
metoharah
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
To be clean or pure; to cleanse or purify.
“cleansed” in this verse is metoharah. The land is described as lacking purification, not merely as carrying a stain. This root names both cleanness and the act of cleansing, while the next phrase adds a second absence: rain.
ALSO GROWS
tahor: Clean, pure.
טָהוֹר
The same root names the condition the land lacks.
taharah: Cleanness, purification.
טָהֳרָה
This branch makes purification a process or state, deepening what “not cleansed” withholds.
tiher: Cleansed, purified.
טִהֵר
This verb from the same root names the action absent from the land.
גֻּשְׁמָה
gushmah
GROWS FROM
גשם
g-sh-m
Rain; to rain or be rained upon.
“rained upon” in this verse is gushmah. The verse does not leave the land’s condition at uncleanness: it also says the land receives no rain. English makes these sound like separate details, but together they show a ground deprived of both cleansing and water.
ALSO GROWS
geshem: Rain.
גֶּשֶׁם
The noun names the water the land does not receive.
gasham: To rain.
גָּשַׁם
The verb form describes rain arriving on the land, the action denied here.
THE PATTERN
The land’s fruitfulness is exposed through its relation to rain: withheld rain leaves it barren, while received rain waters it into fruit.
And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.THE THREAD
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.Ezekiel 36:25 uses the same Hebrew root טהר (taher, to be clean or purify) that lies beneath “cleansed” here. Here the land is unpurified; there, clean water accompanies cleansing, answering the condition this verse names.
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